Watchdog Org. Offers $1 Million to ‘Queers for Palestine’ to Hold Pride Parade in Gaza, West Bank

The New Tolerance Campaign (NTC), a watchdog organization that aims to mobilize Americans to “confront intolerance double standards,” is offering $1 million to support an LGBTQ+ Pride Parade in Palestinian-controlled territories.

In a bold move, the NTC has pledged $1 million to cover costs for an LGBTQ+ Pride Parade in Gaza or the West Bank. The offer, which the group reiterated was neither a joke nor a “publicity stunt,” is aimed at “Queers for Palestine” and other groups that have argued that Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) are inclusive of LGBTQ+ rights. 

“Here’s their chance to prove it,” the watchdog insisted.

The NTC’s challenge is a test of those claims and aims to highlight the differences in the treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals in Israeli and Palestinian territories, noting that “there is a clash of values between Israel and most of the Arab world.”

NTC President and former Log Cabin Republicans President Gregory T. Angelo described the initiative as a “wake-up call” to those identifying with the “Queers for Palestine” or “Gays for Gaza” movements.

“I don’t want people to just shrug off this campaign as some kind of publicity stunt or something that is supposed to be comical,” he told Fox News Digital. “It actually is a legitimate offer.” 

On Monday, the NTC launched a mobile advertising campaign near universities, including Columbia and UCLA, as well as the Human Rights Campaign headquarters in Washington, DC, urging advocacy groups to take up the challenge. 

According to the NTC, the event could be a crucial step in advancing LGBTQ+ rights in the Arab world, where homosexuality remains criminalized in many countries.

The NTC has consistently pointed to the stark contrast in LGBTQ+ rights between Israel, where gay individuals can live openly, and many Arab nations, where such freedoms are heavily restricted or outlawed. The new initiative, it argues, could promote greater tolerance in the Arab world and further liberalization, potentially leading to broader peace initiatives.

Supporters hope this challenge will raise awareness of the challenges that LGBTQ+ individuals face in the region and encourage broader acceptance. However, the feasibility of such a parade in Gaza or the West Bank, both under Palestinian rule, remains virtually impossible.

Clinical psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Jordan Peterson described “Queers for Palestine” as a “staggeringly incomprehensible spectacle” and “suicidal,” as well as a testimony to how far leftists will go “to tear down everything in the West that is worthy.”

Furthermore, world-renowned military historian and professor Dr. Victor Davis Hanson noted that the Hamas “death cult” relies on “useful Western idiots” to support the Palestinian cause, which has “fused with the leftwing DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] industry.” 

“Thus Hamas becomes the Middle-East counterpart to BLM, aggrieved minorities, and, more preposterously, the trans/gay/feminist movement,” he explained. “Meanwhile, Israelis are recalibrated as the demonized Western ‘colonialist’ white supremacists.”