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

Contents:

• ISRAEL IS THE GAYT UNTRY ON EARTH
• GAY TEL AVIV FOR BEGNERS
• ISRAEL PRENTS ITSELF AS HAVEN FOR GAY COMMUNY
• THE GAY-FRIENDLIT CI ISRAEL
• ISRAEL'S GAY SCENE THRIV UNEXPECTED PLAC
• ETRE GAY EN ISRAëL, UN « BAT TO L JOURS »
• THE NEXT STGGLE FOR ISRAEL’S GAY COMMUNY
• IS TEL AVIV REALLY THE GAYT CY ON THE PLA?

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.

GAY TEL AVIV FOR BEGNERS

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. 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. 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.

ISRAEL PRENTS ITSELF AS HAVEN FOR GAY COMMUNY

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 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.

THE GAY-FRIENDLIT CI ISRAEL

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.

ISRAEL'S GAY SCENE THRIV UNEXPECTED PLAC

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.

ETRE GAY EN ISRAëL, UN « BAT TO L JOURS »

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.

THE NEXT STGGLE FOR ISRAEL’S GAY COMMUNY

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 .

IS TEL AVIV REALLY THE GAYT CY ON THE PLA?

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.