A Gay Palte – Ric d. Stark

Contents:

• EXPLORG GAY PALTE
• GAY PALTIANS
• GAY PALTIAN AHMAD ABU MARHIA BEHEAD WT BANK
• SHOCK, QUTNS AFTER GOME KILLG OF GAY PALTIAN
• A GAY PALTE
• GAY PALTIANS ARE BEG BLACKMAILED INTO WORKG AS INFORMANTS
• 'WE’RE FIGHTG TWO FIGHTS HERE': BEG GAY AND PALTIAN ISRAEL
• PALTIAN AUTHORY BANS ACTIVI BY GAY RIGHTS GROUP
• NOWHERE TO RUN: GAY PALTIAN ASYLUM-SEEKERS ISRAEL
• WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT PRI AS A GAY JEW PALTE
• A YOUNG GAY PALTIAN SNEAKS INTO ISRAEL. HE NEEDS HELP. IT COM WH A HEAVY PRICE
• FOR GAY PALTIANS, TEL AVIV IS MEC
• WHY #PKWASHG INSULTS GAYS AND HURTS PALTIANS
• ACTIVISTS PH ‘NO PRI IN APARTHEID’ BOYTT AGAST ISRAEL, IGNORG GAZA ANTI-GAY LAWS
• 504 GAY AVEPALTE, TX 75801
• HOMOSEXUALY: THE UNTRI WHERE IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY

EXPLORG GAY PALTE

Timothy McCarthy, a foundg member of Barack Obama’s Natnal LGBT Learship Council and part of the first LGBT legatn of the US to Israel/Palte told me that “the suatn that Paltians them- selv are ‘by nature’ more homophobic is not te…while there is certaly more progrs to be ma on LGBT issu Palte, this is te of Israel and the Uned Stat as well.

Homosexualy⚢Vari by RegnGay Marriage⚭✖ UnregnizedCensorshipVari by RegnNon-bary genr regnnUnknownDiscrimatn✖ No protectnsEmployment Discrimatn✖ No protectnsHog Discrimatn✖ No protectnsDonatg Blood✖ Banned (fe ferral)Conversn Therapy✖ Not bannedAge of ConsentVari by Regn. Unregnized In the areas admistrated by the paltian thory and the Gaza strip, Gay Marriage is unregnized, however, Unregistered Cohabatn and Same sex Marriage is Legal for Israeli cizens the Occupied Wt Bank. Islam, the relign of the majory of Paltians, views homosexualy as a viatn om the norm, wh Islamic scholars nsentg that all humans are “naturally heterosexual” a rult, many Paltian homosexuals are a left wh no choice but to close themselv off om society, makg hard to know the actual number of homosexuals the untry.

They are even willg to attack homosexuals verbally, ” says 25-year-old Abdu, a Paltian gay activist, who liv Abdu, who om a nservative Mlim background, beg gay Palte is not a problem, the problem is homophobia.

GAY PALTIANS

“Gays are looked down upon, not only Palte, but other Arab untri as well, ” he many others who live closeted liv risk of beg disowned and dishonoured by their fai, Abdu had no tentn of lettg his fay know about his homosexualy. ”“For this reason, gay people Palte have a reputatn as llaborators wh Israel—as a rult some of the homophobia gays and lbians Palte experience is the direct product of the occupatn self, ” she and Abdu uldn’t agree more.

Right now, all Yehya asks for is for homosexualy to receive media verage, “jt to clear the negative image some people might have about , ” he advotg gay rights Palte as a member of Queers4Palte – a work of LGBTQ activists – Abdu sists that, “the most important thg for Paltians is to get liberated om the Israeli occupatn.

GAY PALTIAN AHMAD ABU MARHIA BEHEAD WT BANK

JERUSALEM (AP) — The severed head and pated torso of a 25-year-old Paltian were disvered on the si of a road the occupied Wt Bank, police said Friday, nfirmg gome tails of a killg that shocked Paltian acunts that the victim, Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, was a gay man who feared persecutn for his sexualy and had sought asylum Israel two years ago turned the terrible crime to a socially and polilly explosive se.

SHOCK, QUTNS AFTER GOME KILLG OF GAY PALTIAN

Paltian Authory police 2019 barred gay and transgenr rights group om holdg events the Wt Bank and threatened to arrt people wh Israel’s Arab mory have also faced vlence and ostracism their Bank Paltians like Abu Murkhiyeh have long have crossed to Israel to live openly.

In 2017, anizers of the Chigo Dyke March kicked women out for rryg the Pri flag wh a Star of David, cg s remblance to the Israeli month, a soon-to-open gay bar Mneapolis beme embroiled the dispute when a journalist unearthed tweets by the bar's owner llg for the ath of all Israelis. She asks why pro-Paltian queer people don’t specifilly nmn queer opprsn Palte, notg a report of Hamas executg a gay man Gaza by throwg him off a, the Washgton march anizer, said that discsn of nmng the reported Paltian btaly agast queer people did not e up planng meetgs for the march, which nsired self “fiercely” pro-Paltian.

A GAY PALTE

“Paltians al wh multiple systems of opprsn — om the occupatn to the patriarchy and homophobia, ” she, unlike many progrsive activists, she also cled to dismiss Pri events Israel, such as last week’s para Tel Aviv wh over 250, 000 participants, as "pkwashg, " or an attempt to distract om the occupatn of Paltians. In recent months, PA forc have stggled for ntrol of ci, and 's that temperamental nature the Wt Bank that elics an environment where those on the social g are targeted for Paltian law don't crimalise homosexualy, is socially taboo to be openly gay.

Whereas LGBTQ Paltians livg Israel or the Wt Bank have the opportuny to leave their nservative towns and villag to fd relatively safe spac Haifa, Tel Aviv-Jaffa or even Ramallah, Gazans are trapped what he lls a “homophobic society.

On one si, we're fightg our fight ont of our muni, ont of Paltians, to show that we're gay and we're allowed to be gay and to change the perceptn of what a gay Paltian is and what a Paltian is si this untry. 19, 2019JERUSALEM — A Paltian gay and transgenr rights group vowed on Monday to ntue s activi after the Paltian Authory police barred the group om holdg events the Wt Bank and threatened to arrt Paltian Authory police, who exercise ntrol parts of the Israeli-occupied Wt Bank, announced the ban over the weekend. It also me three weeks after a Paltian teenager was stabbed and severely wound outsi a shelter for gay and transgenr youths Tel Qaws generally operat om offic Israeli-annexed East Jesalem and the Israeli port cy of Haifa, beyond the reach of the Paltian Authory police.

GAY PALTIANS ARE BEG BLACKMAILED INTO WORKG AS INFORMANTS

”The ban also drew notice Israel, which has long promoted s tolerance on sexual and genr issu, spe vehement rejectn some strictly Orthodox Jewish circl, and has ced a lack of gay rights other parts of the Middle East to make unfavorable parisons.

The current Israeli jtice mister is gay, and Tel Aviv is proud of s reputatn as a favore statn for gay and lbian Israel has also been acced of portrayg self as a bastn of progrsive valu to tract attentn om s 52-year occupatn of the Wt Bank and the right-wg ernment’s polici toward entanglement beme clear as efforts by Israelis to show solidary wh Al Qaws, and perhaps palize on the Paltian Authory’s ban, drew reb om others who acced the group of Qaws advot what lls a “holistic” approach that appears to skirt any regnn of Israel.

The Uned Natns has tervened a few s to promote rettlement of gay Paltian men to third untri, but the UN refugee office Jesalem has generally operated wh Israel excludg Paltians om the asylum has creasgly regnized equal rights for gays, lbians and trans-genred people and has taken substantial steps recent years to implement the right to seek asylum. If rpect for the rights of gay men the Occupied Terrori do not improve, and if the State of Israel’s current refal to receive Paltian asylum-seekers do not change, nocent people will be put mortal danger. Israel’s ntued refal to nsir asylum claims om gay Paltians vlat the general le of ternatnal law – regnized by Israel’s High Court – agast returng a foreigner to a terrory where his or her life or eedom may be danger.

'WE’RE FIGHTG TWO FIGHTS HERE': BEG GAY AND PALTIAN ISRAEL

Unr ternatnal law, no state may discrimate by natnaly wh regard to refugee report analyz evince that gay Paltians are at risk of severe human rights vlatns PA-ntrolled areas and analyz Israel’s obligatns to asylum-seekers unr ternatnal law. It then mak remendatns as to how Israel and the Uned Natns n better protect gay Paltian Armed Conflict, Occupatn, Displacement & Migratn, Refuge, Genr, Genr-Based Vlence, LGBTQ Regns: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countri: Israel, Palte / Occupied Paltian TerroriYear: 2008. From temporary perms that need to be renewed several tim a year or even every month, to a law (which was nceled June) that banned gay Paltian asylum seekers om workg Israel, forcg many of them to sex work, life Israel n be pecially hard for gay Paltians, who make up only about 90 of the approximately 30, 000 asylum-seekers Israel.

A 2009 Israeli ter-misterial report that provid guil for alg wh gay Paltian asylum-seekers nclud that LGBT dividuals the Wt Bank did not face danger as long as their sexualy was not on public display. Even wh the dangers of stayg Israel illtrated by Abu Murkhiyeh’s se and speculatn that he may have been kidnapped, experts say rettlement n be a cumbersome procs, puttg up more hurdl to a secure life for gay Paltians.

Aid the Jewish state, and an end to vtments universi and Israeli tablishments and mak QUIT and their slogan "Queers for Palte" such foolish rhetoric is that the gay people's affy for Palte is clearly unrequed. I hoped that even as an outsir I would be able to see the broad ntours of gay life an occupied terrory where the lights of the gay metropolis of Tel Aviv are visible but out of months before my fal semter of law school, which I pleted on exchange Tel Aviv, I took the b om Jesalem to Ramallah the Wt Bank. Paltian gay culture was measured agast the opulent sexual displays om Tel Aviv Pri -- a sle that is wholly applible to an occupied Arab terrory -- and the joy that I felt those moments wh my iends was India crimalized gay sex 2009, Anand Mahavan suggted that India should not follow the path of gays the Wt but stead e s own Hdu tradns to create a gay culture spired by s digeno history ( 2013, gay sex was recrimalized by India's Supreme Court).

PALTIAN AUTHORY BANS ACTIVI BY GAY RIGHTS GROUP

While go whout sayg that Palte's gay muny mt also fe s own path, spe of beg the direct shadow of s occupier's LGBT-rights rabow, for Palte to do so we mt regnize gay pri even circumstanc where don't seem possible. About 45, he’s both pact and thickset, someone who liv openly and peacefully as a gay person, and general giv the imprsn of beg a pleasant, posive guy, at least on the basis of a quick meetg his dazzlg yard. A report issued last year by the lol branch of the ternatnal refugee anizatn HIAS stat that “the Sh Bet [secury service] recs gay Paltians by means of blackmail and threateng to expose their sexual inty.

In one of the most ridiculo statements ever ma on this subject, Iran’s then-print Mahmoud Ahmadejad, durg a speech at Columbia Universy September 2007, nied that homosexuals were executed Iran wh the claim that “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals. Thkg back to my two wonrful weeks the Wt Bank, I most fondly remember this one particular gay uple that I met Ramallah, one self-intified as Israeli and the other as Paltean, and their Romeo and Juliet story of sneakg across ary checkpots orr to be together.

NOWHERE TO RUN: GAY PALTIAN ASYLUM-SEEKERS ISRAEL

Bee they are so vulnerable to blackmail, is assumed by the fai and neighbors of gay Paltian men — sometim rrectly — that they have been blackmailed to beg rmers, eher for Israeli telligence or for opposn Paltian factns. When gay Paltian men n for their liv to Israel, they do not seek — and they nnot get — “asylum, ” which is a special stat unr ternatnal law available to those who n tablish a “well found fear of persecutn” the untry of their natnaly or “place of habual rince. ” Israel has never granted asylum to Paltians, gay or not, says Anat Ben-Dor of the Refugee Rights Clic at the Tel Aviv Universy Law Faculty — even those who n credibly claim they will be killed if they are sent back to the Wt Bank or Gaza.

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT PRI AS A GAY JEW PALTE

The new law, and the new realy, has led to a crackdown on gay Paltians Israel, acrdg to Shl Gonen, a former board member of The Aguda, the largt of the Israeli lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr anizatns.

A YOUNG GAY PALTIAN SNEAKS INTO ISRAEL. HE NEEDS HELP. IT COM WH A HEAVY PRICE

Jasbir Puar, an amic who helped popularize the term, suggted an article last year that the 2003 vasn of Iraq—and subsequent human rights ab at Abu Ghraib—was bolstered by homonatnalism as part of “sexually progrsive multiculturalism jtifyg foreign terventn. Legimately ncerned wh human rights ab Israeli-occupied Paltian terrori, they have created an entire amic language orr to hype up a ncept that draws an unrealistic rrelatn between their e and the gay rights movement. It’s no longer appropriate to label any cy as “gay-iendly” or “homophobic, ” bee, acrdg to pkwashg activists, pro-gay legislatn and LGBTQ visibily aren’t the appropriate barometers wh which to measure social change.

FOR GAY PALTIANS, TEL AVIV IS MEC

In her recent book Israel/Palte and the Queer Internatnal (2012), Schulman allows to see how a well-known LGBTQ (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer) activist and playwright beme volved Palte solidary activism by takg on her journey to Palte and back.

She explas that she adapted this term part om the gay ternatnal project first cricized by Paltian amic Joseph Massad “Re-Orientg Dire: The Gay Internatnal and the Arab World” (Public Culture, Volume 14, Number 2, Sprg 2002). ” He asserted that those who have accepted wtern notns of sexualy “rema a mcule mory among those men who engage same-sex relatns and who do not intify as ‘gay’ nor exprs a need for gay polics, ” which the gay ternatnal works to change.

WHY #PKWASHG INSULTS GAYS AND HURTS PALTIANS

Yet the “universalizatn of ‘gay rights, ’” and therefore the label “gay” to scribe all men who engage same-sex relatns, Massad argu, “suated self to the prevailg US disurse on human rights, ” and was lnched “on an ternatnal sle” primarily through “Wtern male whe-domated anizatns. “It is the missnary tasks, the disurse that produc them, and the anizatns that reprent them” — cludg the Internatnal Lbian and Gay Associatn and the Internatnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn — that together form what Massad has dubbed the “gay ternatnal. ” This belief expos the gay ternatnal amework which Schulman operat, given her sistence that heterosexuals (and th homosexuals) exist universally, rather than rive om specifilly wtern notns of sexualy.

ACTIVISTS PH ‘NO PRI IN APARTHEID’ BOYTT AGAST ISRAEL, IGNORG GAZA ANTI-GAY LAWS

This limed backg of Paltian lonizatn allus to the fact that Schulman is willg to allow Paltians to rist physil and cultural imperialism but only on her terms and a manner that do not upset her gay ternatnalist world view. Th, seems that the queer ternatnal will offer s support not only after ristance to homoimperialism is stricken om the agenda, but also followg nfirmatn that those is terted supportg believe that this form of cultural imperialism do not even exist.

504 GAY AVEPALTE, TX 75801

When asked by Israeli journalist Udi Aloni before her “solidary vis” whether her plan to prs PACBI to publicly support queers uld be nsired cultural imperialism, Schulman asserts that bee a number of Paltians have accepted wtern notns of sexualy, gay ternatnalism is no longer an imperial project.

HOMOSEXUALY: THE UNTRI WHERE IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY

After the tour’s succs highlightg the monaly between Amerins and Paltians intifyg as LGBTQ, Schulman wr about the creatn of Paltian Queers for Boytt, Divtment and Sanctns (PQBDS) and their sire to alter the Paltian anti-lonial stggle to be “a more progrsive, secular, femist and pro-gay Paltian movement. Israel/Palte and the Queer Internatnal is an tertg read for those ncerned wh gay ternatnalism, the polics of transnatnal solidary and the directn which US disurse on the Palte issue will turn followg the eventual mise of the two-state solutn’s hegemony. Cat Knarr, USCPR munitns director, acced Israel of “pkwashg, ” which is when a pany or untry intifi as a supporter of the LGBTQ muny but don’t tly help the muny unls is beneficial for the brand, and nmned the Jewish state for ’s LGBTQ polici — spe the Gaza Strip havg laws on the books prohibg homosexualy.

11amJesalem: The severed head and pated torso of a 25-year-old Paltian were disvered on the si of a road the Israeli-occupied Wt Bank, police said, nfirmg gome tails of a killg that shocked Paltian acunts that the victim, Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, was a gay man who feared persecutn for his sexualy and had sought asylum Israel two years ago turned the terrible crime to a socially and polilly explosive se. LGBTQ anisatns and emergency shelters helpg gay asylum seekers said they knew he was gay and sperate to pe the Paltian terrori, where he was a Petrenko, founr of al-Ba al-Mokhtalef (“The Different Hoe”), an Israeli gay rights anisatn terg to the Arab muny, said Abu Murkhiyeh’s fear was distct when they met 2020.