Israel is the gayt untry on earth | Yoni Leviatan | The Blogs

Contents:

• ISRAEL IS THE GAYT UNTRY ON EARTH
• GAY TEL AVIV FOR BEGNERS
• THE GAY-FRIENDLIT CI ISRAEL
• GAY TEL AVIV

ISRAEL IS THE GAYT UNTRY ON EARTH

Israel is known as a gay haven the Middle East, and Tel Aviv is equently ced as one of the most gay-iendly ci the world, wh a Pri para that draws hundreds of thoands of revelers om Israel and abroad. Dpe the legal protectns, LGBTQ Israelis have long faced opposn om wh the haredi Orthodox sector, where rabbis veigh agast homosexualy and policians have vowed to n the untry acrdg to Orthodox terpretatns of Jewish law. The Relig Znist Party, one of three the Relig Znist Bloc, is led by Bezalel Smotrich, who has lled himself a “proud homophobe” and has envisned Israel as a theocracy.

LGBTQ Israelis are playg a ccial role the mountg anti-ernment protts, activatg a work that put some 100, 000 people the streets 2018 after Netanyahu voted agast a bill to allow gay upl to e surrogacy. Elements of the g aln led by the prime mister-elect Benjam Netanyahu have not hidn the fact that they are hostile to Paltians and LGBTQ+ Maoz, the lear of the extremist relig natnalist party Noam that helped Netanyahu’s bloc w, has said queer people are a “threat to the fay”, and that the greatt achievement women n make is to marry and raise is expected to head a new “natnal Jewish inty” thory wh powers over some school activi, cludg mory rights and genr many leftwg voters, the rise of a homophobic and ultra-relig ernment was not a surprise after four years of polil chaos and succsive electns triggered by Netanyahu’s rptn trial.

Dpe ial aln negotiatn difficulti, is expected the new ernment will last a whole Rudner voted for the leftwg party Meretz, which failed to pass the electoral thrhold last month’s electn and is out of the Knset altogether, dilutg an already small leftwg 24-year-old tour gui, who intifi as gay, emigrated to Israel 2017 om the US and liv Jesalem.

GAY TEL AVIV FOR BEGNERS

Noam has lled for the ncellatn of Gay Pri Habashi, a transgenr Paltian cizen of Israel livg Jaffa, an Arab-majory area to Tel Aviv’s south, who works technology, said she found the polil suatn nfg. If we are gog to have a place for this type of talk public – transphobia and homophobia – will make a lot harr for me to live my life, and that’s sry, ” she said. Instead, chang the valu and polics of Israeli society over the past twenty years or so created the space which a gay and lbian muny uld first gay anizatn was tablished 1975, thanks largely to the work of immigrants om the Uned Stat and other English-speakg untri fluenced by the velopment of gay liberatn and the unterculture of the 1960s.

THE GAY-FRIENDLIT CI ISRAEL

The very name of this first anizatn, the Society for the Protectn of Personal Rights (then, as today, known as the Agudah, Hebrew), reflected the difficulty of anizg sexual mori at a time when the existence of a sodomy law was thought by many to make homosexualy self illegal. But for many years, Israeli lbians funneled most of their energi to femism, rather than the stggle for gay and lbian velopment of a gay inty was difficult for many at a time when Israeli society was still the midst of s Znist revolutn.

Pleadg more prsg issu, the public agenda did not clu the place of mizrahim (Jews who immigrated to Israel om the Arab untri) a society domated by European-born Jews, women’s liberatn, equaly for Paltian cizens of Israel, or gay rights.

GAY TEL AVIV

The certati of Znism gave way to a multu of polil and cultural inti: ultra-orthodox Judaism, growg assertn of a Paltian inty among Israel’s Arab cizens, natnalism, and yearngs for a more Wtern, liberal society peted for the allegiance of, gay inty and polics still did not go public. By 1992, lbian and gay activists had succeed gettg the Knset to amend Israel’s Equal Workplace Opportuni Law to outlaw discrimatn on the basis of sexual 1993, the Israeli ary rcd s few regulatns discrimatg agast gays and lbians.

And 1994, the Israeli Supreme Court orred El Al Israel Airl to grant a ee plane ticket to the partner of a gay flight attendant, as the airle had long done for heterosexual partners of then, there has been steady progrs, pecially the urts. Chief among them was the fact that gay activists pursued a very mastream strategy, seekg to nvce the wir public that gay Israelis were good patrtic cizens who jt happened to be attracted to the same strategy, pursued until recently, rerced the perceptn that gay rights was a non-partisan issue, unnnected to the major fissure Israeli polics, the Arab-Israeli nflict and how to rolve . Th, the opposn of relig parti to gay rights has engenred the oppose reactn among non-relig Revolutn BegsThe mastream path started to grate on some gay and lbian Israelis the late 1990s.

Prevly, the Israeli gay movement had shunned transgenred people, fearg what their cln would do to s public image, but wh Dana receivg ngratulatory telegrams om the Prime Mister and beg ma an honorary ambassador by the Knset, was now “safe” for the movement to expand s November of that year, Michal En won a seat the Tel Aviv Cy Council, beg Israel’s first openly lbian elected official. The Israeli LGBT movement has not embraced femism ( fact, sexism and tensns between gay men and lbians are both que prevalent), and until recently, the place of gay Arabs the muny was neglected, reflectg the wir society’s difference to Israel’s Arab mory (some 20 percent of Israel’s populatn).

Agast the backdrop of clash between Israel and the Paltian Authory, the 2001 Tel Aviv’s Pri Para, typilly a celebratory, hedonistic affair, got a dose of polics when a ntgent lled “Gays Black” marched wh a banner proclaimg, “There’s No Pri In Occupatn. ” A group lled “Kvisa Sh’hora” (Dirty Lndry) also spng up, lkg the opprsn of sexual mori to what se as the Israeli opprsn of the PriThe holdg of World Pri Jesalem Augt 2006 highlights the succs and challeng of Israel’s gay and lbian muny. The succs are many: 1) the growth of viable muni outsi of Tel Aviv, symbolized by the Jesalem muny’s hostg of World Pri, an ternatnal gay pri event; ntued legal succs, pecially wh rpect to uple’s rights; and broad cultural visibily.

But before the para had to be ncelled bee of regnal tensns, was shapg up as a stggle between Israel’s relig tablishment and the gay and lbian Jesalem municipaly and a verable alliance of relig lears uned only their opposn to homosexualy were termed to thwart the holdg of the para. They claimed that homosexualy so ntradicted the teachgs of all three of the monotheistic fahs that a para for acceptance and equaly of the GLBT muny would forever sta the holy cy. Even many secular Israelis normally supportive of the Israeli GLBT muny viewed holdg an ternatnal gay pri para Jesalem as an unnecsary provotn, showg jt how succsful Israel’s relig tablishment has been shapg a gree of obedience to s sensivi.

Every June, the cy wel hundreds of thoands of ternatnal visors and revelers for Tel Aviv Gay Pri, an epic and unsurpassed daytime street party along the shor of the Mederranean Sea.