Gays

In her book , The  Israelis, Donna Rosenthal gives us her perspective about the life of gays in Israel. According to her book, Israel has very progressive laws that protect the rights of gays, transsexuals and lesbians. For example, gay couples are eligible to spousal benefits, and gay officers serve in the Israeli Defense Force (Rosenthal, 371). The author contrasts this attitude to that of the Arab-Muslim culture where gays have no rights and they often have to face death threats from their surroundings (Rosenthal, 376) . Of course, Rosenthal reveals also the hostility of many Israelis towards the gay community. Orthodox Jews condemn homosexuality, and Russian Jews come from a communist regime that cultivated a culture of hostility towards homosexuals (Rosenthal, 377). Still, according to the author Israel is a far better place for an alternative lifestyle.

An internet research provides evidence that fit with Rosenthal’s vantage point. A Reuters article  mentions the case of a Palestinian gay from the West Bank who got a temporary permit to live with his lover in Israel. Usually, it takes years for a Palestinian to get this type of permit, but the death threats that the Palestinian gay faced in the West Bank were serious and his Israeli partner convinced the state to issue the permit fast. Of course, we have to be careful with these types of stories, because both lovers had an incentive to use whatever “evidence” they could find to facilitate the issuance of the permit.

Still, it is quite probable that a Palestinian gay actually faces a much more hostile environment in the Palestinian territories.  The BBC news  reports the escape of hundreds of Palestinian gays to Israel. It is even more interesting the fact that many of these Palestinian gays live in Israel illegally. According to the same article, many of those illegal Palestinian gays in Israel live practically under house arrest since the Israeli government treats them as suspects for suicide bombings. It is really difficult to imagine someone being willing to live under house arrest in Israel hoping to get a permit, unless there were really serious threats in the Palestinian territories . All these stories fit actually with different pieces of evidence we have about the Palestinian society. For example, traditional gender roles have not been challenged there to the degree they have been in western societies. Thus, it seems logical to expect that gays face harder challenges in the Palestinian territories.

More hard data come from two different sources. The first one comes from the Aswat group of Palestinian gay women living in Israel. The credibility of the site is enhanced by the fact that in one of their posts the group condemns the Israeli attacks on Gaza. So, it appears that the group is not controlled or influenced by the Israeli government. In addition, the Asia-Pacific Forum  (APF) seems to be a credible source of information and is cited in different academic papers (see for example page 175 of Professor Carole J. Petersen's paper.) According to page 107 of the APF's background paper, homosexual conduct is penalized in Gaza Strip. On the other hand, even though homosexuality is not a criminal offense in West Bank, there is no anti-discrimination law to protect the rights of gays and lesbians there. As a side note, we have to remember that even if anti-discrimination laws existed in theory, we could not assume that they were being enforced in practice.   

All the above do not mean that gays have an ideal life in Israel. For example, Haaretz reports the execution of two gays in a club in central Tel Aviv. The article does not clarify if the gunman was a Jew or a Palestinian, but in any case, the Israeli police announced that the murder was not linked to terrorism and was simply a hate crime. Again, this piece of information fits with Rosenthal’s book where she mentions the existence of many groups in Israel which hate the gay community. Still, it seems that these incidents are very rare. For example, the progressive (and presumably pro-gay) Haaretz mentioned in the same article that the shooting was the worst case of violence against the gay community in Israel up until then. So in conclusion, Israel seems to be a far better place for gays than the Palestinian territories and it seems Rosenthal gives a fair picture of the challenges the gay community faces in Israel and the Palestinian territories.