By Sally Shakkour
A video, widely shared on social media, is believed to be recorded in the Netherlands for a man on a bicycle holding what was thought to be a Pride flag and fighting with two men wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh and flag.
The video is believed to have been first shared by a Twitter page called “I,Hypocrite” on 17th of May and got over 660K views, 11.4K like and more than 3000 retweets.
Gary was shocked that his support wasn't welcomed with open arms at the #FreePalaestine rally. pic.twitter.com/bVYVCoTDL3
— I,Hypocrite (@lporiginalg) May 17, 2021
The 24-second video was also shared by Rita Panahi, the well known American-born Australian conservative opinion columnist, as she posted it on Twitter saying: “Gary was shocked that the only country in the Middle East where gay people are afforded key protections & rights is…”
According to a Reddit user who was able to translate some of the chat between the men revealed that they were speaking Dutch and the incident took place in the Netherlands.
Other Twitter users have denied the allegations about the man not being welcomed by the Palestinian guys, but they were actually worried about his safety from the other people in the demonstration; as one of the men was saying to the flag guy: “I’m afraid for your safety.”
Hes saying “ik ben bang voor je man” which means im scared for you man. The guy with the flag cape is saying we accept everyone (including homosexuals) but the other guy keeps repeating that hed be scared if he was him.
— Joe (@Joe64940023) May 17, 2021
On the other hand, few people have easily noticed that the man who was kicked out of the pro-Palestinian rally was not holding the Pride flag; In fact he was holding the Peace one as some revealed that the word written on it translates as “PEACE” in the Dutch language.
Furthermore, they added that the flag colors differ between the Pride flag and the Peace flag; the LGBT flag has 7 stripes while the Pride flag contains only 6. Not only the number of flag colors but the order of the colors is different between the two.
Had to search it, what Gary is holding is PEACE flag, the top color is purple. Hence the word VREDE written on it. The PRIDE flag starts with red color. pic.twitter.com/KJu4omuJwF
— Rexy Ambarwati (@AmbarwatiRexy) May 19, 2021
Despite the fact that the man was holding a Peace flag and not a Pride flag, a word-war erupted on social media with people denouncing the fact that queer community should show support for Palestine.
A user replied to the video saying: “It's a free Palestine rally not an LGTB rally, if he wants to support he should pick up a Palestine flag.”
'Yes, I'll Kill Palestinian Children Till the Last One': Online Chat With an Israeli Shocks ViewersIt's a free Palestine rally not an LGTB rally, if he wants to support he should pick up a Palestine flag.
— The Ibedal (@IbedalOsina) May 17, 2021
While others shared pictures of LGBTQ members actually joining the rallies in support of Palestine against continued attacks by Israeli forces, which killed 227, including 64 children and 38 women, and displaced about 75,000 till this moment.
This is just complete propaganda. This guy with his flag joined the demonstration and was not bothered. Members of The 'Queers Against Apartheid' were also very prominently present during the whole demonstration. Seeeeee: pic.twitter.com/pMD8RoYCl0
— Bram Hessels (@KanDerWat) May 18, 2021
