MONTREAL — The man who has been dubbed “the mayor” of the gay Jewish party scene in New York received a less than cordial reception in Montreal.

Jayson Littman, the founder of He’bro, which organizes gay social and cultural events, had his talk at Hillel House on March 27 drowned out by protesters.

His scheduled presentation on “Out in Israel” drew a flood of objection on social media days in advance and a score of demonstrators at the event.

The most vocal opponent of his appearance beforehand was the Centre for Gender Advocacy, an independent, but student-funded, organization at Concordia, which describes its mandate as promoting gender equality and empowerment, particularly among “marginalized communities.”

The approximately 20 noisy demonstrators identified themselves as Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.

The controversy led Queer Concordia, the main LGBTQ group on campus, to withdraw its support for the event earlier that day, said Michelle Soicher, a fellow of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), the event’s main sponsor. 

Littman, who videotaped the incident and posted it on YouTube, said about 20 people showed up at the event and began chanting about Israel’s occupation and oppression of the Palestinians as soon as he was to speak.

“They demanded that I leave the premises and that the lecture be cancelled,” said Littman, who said he was “a bit nervous.”

He said they began moving closer to him and gesturing with their hands, which Littman interpreted as an attempt to “provoke some kind of physical confrontation. But everyone on our side remained really calm.”

The demonstrators were not ejected, but given the opportunity to stay if they behaved. Security guards moved the meeting to another room, stopping the demonstrators, who continued to be disruptive, from coming into the new space, said Littman.

They demanded to be let in, shouting that this was like a “checkpoint” in Israel, Littman recalled.

Eventually, they were escorted out of Hillel House, and Littman went ahead with his scheduled talk before an audience of about 20.

In the leaflet they left behind, the demonstrators said, “Under the guise of speaking about LGBTQ issues in Israel, this event – its speaker, sponsors and hosts – are attempting to excuse and promote violence and hatred toward Palestinians (including Palestinian queers) and the ongoing occupation and colonization of Palestinian territory.”

The event is part of “an aggressive public relations campaign to market Israel as an oasis of gay tolerance and democracy in the Mideast, surrounded by ‘backward’ countries where gays have no rights. The campaign is not about supporting queers in Palestine or elsewhere in the Mideast who are resisting homophobia.”

Soicher described comments on the event’s Facebook page as “hateful, rude and petty,” others as “academic.” Few addressed the topic at hand: LGBTQ rights in the Middle East.

Gender Advocacy also accuses Israel of “pinkwashing,” which it describes as Israel’s use of “its relative – but far from complete – acceptance of queers to reinforce its position as the ‘Middle East’s only democracy’” and to deflect attention from alleged abuses of Palestinians’ human rights.

Gender Advocacy endorses Israeli Apartheid Week, which took place at Concordia and other Montreal universities in March.

Founded in 1982, the U.S.-based CAMERA is a pro-Israel organization that monitors media coverage of Israel and the Middle East.

Soicher, a second-year theatre student, is one of 27 North American university students (one of two in Canada) who are CAMERA fellows this year. They are charged with trying to offer balance to anti-Israel activity on campus.

She began working to bring Littman to Concordia back in September. Her goal was to have him speak to a broad audience on campus about the situation of the LGBTQ community in Israel in comparison with neighbouring countries.

She partnered with Queer Concordia, which agreed to have its name associated with the event and to promote it among its more than 1,000 Facebook invitation list, as well as book space on campus. It wasn’t able to secure space, but that was not due to the nature of Littman’s talk, Soicher believes.

Hillel House is off-campus, on Stanley Street.

The intent from the beginning was to steer the discussion away from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and overt politics, Soicher said, and encourage a dialogue that she thought would be of interest to the greater Concordia LGBTQ community.

Her aim, she said, was to present a positive side of Israel, which is little heard on campus.

Although pro-Palestinian activity is not as vitriolic as it was years ago at Concordia, it is pervasive she said, and has become “academically valid,” noting that the Concordia Graduate Students’ Association last year endorsed the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.

“It’s cool to be pro-Palestinian,” she said. “But I didn’t realize until now how strong the anti-Israel feeling is.”

Littman, 36, is the former director of A Wider Bridge, an organization, Soicher said, that seeks to foster connections between the LGBTQ community in Israel and North America. He has also led LGBTQ Taglit-Birthright trips to Israel.

The reason Queer Concordia gave her for pulling out is that it “wants to remain neutral,” but Soicher believes it “bowed to pressure from those who wanted to skew this event into something that it was not.

“I regret that they were put into this difficult situation by dogmatic radicals uninterested in respectful dialogue.”

Queer Concordia declined to comment to The CJN about its decision.

Soicher does not blame Queer Concordia and respects what it did. “I’m not angry at all. Their heart was in the right place…They didn’t want to. I know they felt terrible,” she said.

Soicher is shaken by what she sees as an attempt to obstruct free speech.

“They are not just saying they disagree, but are trying to stifle anyone from saying anything good about Israel. That’s censorship.”

Soicher insists she is open to debating civilly with Israel’s critics.

“Sure, write things against us. Come to events and ask provocative questions, but don’t try to shut us down.”

Littman, who speaks on other campuses in the United States, said this was the most hostile reception he has ever received. “I have had threatening messages on social media, but obviously when people are in your face it’s different.”

“If the demonstrators had stayed, he said they would have heard that he does not portray Israel as a haven for gays, but as a democracy whose courts have allowed this community to fight and win those rights, as it has in the West.

If Israel markets itself as exceptionally open to LGBTQ people, he said, “it has nothing to do with political propaganda; the one reason the Israeli government promotes Israel as gay-friendly is capitalism—it wants to bring in tourism.”