Intersectionality in Palestinian diaspora, queer & solidarity organizing
A conversation with AJ Al-Kurdi
Wednesday, 30 July 2025
19:00 CEST, via zoom
How does Palestinian queer activism—within Palestine, across the diaspora, and in allied movements—challenge dominant models of international solidarity?
While efforts against Israeli pinkwashing—the strategic promotion of Israel as LGBTQ-friendly to obscure its settler-colonial practices—have brought greater visibility to Palestinian queer activism since 2011, the connections between movements inside historic Palestine, diaspora communities, and global solidarity networks remain underexplored.
In this conversation, we will engage with AJ Al-Kurdi’s paper, which draws on existing literature and web archives, arguing that these interconnected movements confront the fragmentation of anti-colonial, LGBTQI, and diasporic politics. Together, they offer a model of intersectional organizing that links colonial violence, displacement, and sexual and gender politics across multiple sites of struggle. We will also dive into how these questions are informed by the experiences of organizers in Palestinian queer collectives, as well as the ways in which LGBTQI Palestinians navigate diaspora communities and international solidarity spaces.
Join us as we explore these questions with AJ Al-Kurdi, who will present his essay/paper on “Intersectionality in Palestinian diaspora, queer and solidarity organizing”.
This event is part of our Palestine Solidarity Series. This series is our place to breathe and think together about oppression, solidarity, resistance, decolonization and liberation. The shared space we are claiming here is one of listening, dialogue, and empathy. We ask that those who join us hold this space with care; inflammatory or hateful speech will not be tolerated.
About the speaker
AJ Al-Kurdi (he/him) is a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality. His dissertation research examines how the self-organization of racialized LGBTQI communities in Europe—specifically Romani collectives in Hungary, pan-African collectives in France, and Muslim collectives in Germany—shapes public policy and legislation at both national and EU levels. Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork and quantitative analysis of policy and organizational documents and funding data, his research traces how ‘intersectional politics’ rooted in U.S.-based progressive discourse travel and adapt to mainstream LGBTQI movements and state-led diversity and inclusion initiatives in Europe. AJ is a social scientist by training, and has Master’s degrees from Central European University, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, and Corvinus University of Budapest.
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