Queers Against Israeli Apartheid

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) was a Toronto-based grassroots LGBT group involved in the movement against what the organization see as Israeli apartheid and is a member of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid. The group has been involved in Israeli Apartheid Week as well as Pride Week. QuAIA formed shortly after the 2008 iteration of Israeli Apartheid Week at which queer activists had a discussion about "pinkwashing", or the use of gay rights as a propaganda tool to justify Israel’s policy toward Palestine. The group went on to form contingents for the 2008-2010 and 2012 Pride parades, as well as holding forums, discussion panels and cultural events in Toronto.

The group announced in February 2015 that it was disbanding after seven years of activity.

In 2010, the group was initially banned from marching in the Pride Toronto Parade, despite receiving statements of support from queer organizations within and outside Canada, including the three major Palestinian queer rights organizations. However, following a backlash from the local queer community, Pride Toronto reversed their decision to ban the words "Israeli Apartheid" as of June 23, 2010.

Yakov M. Rabkin, professor of history at the Université de Montréal, spoke out in favor of QuAIA's message and their right to march in the parade in the pages of the National Post, saying,

One may sympathize with Israel fans in this country who find it hard to present the state of Israel in an attractive light. By campaigning to ban the QUAIA, they only confirm what many have long suspected: that Israel is indeed an apartheid state...

Wise men of South Africa extricated their country from a violent conundrum. This should show Israel and its supporters a way to lasting peace. A prohibition of the QUAIA will be remembered as a ridiculous and irrelevant act.

Gil Troy, professor of History at McGill University, has criticized Queers against Israeli Apartheid:

Perverse groups such as Queers against Israeli Apartheid pop up which, considering how free democratic Israel is and how unfree much of the Arab world is, makes as much sense as Doctors against Anti-Smoking Campaigns or Liberals for Islamism. Israel's harsh critics fail to see that if they were less relentless and more credible they could have more impact.

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