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Palestinian gays flee to Israel
A number of gay Palestinian men are risking their lives to cross the border into Israel, claiming they feel safer among Israelis than their own people. According to some estimates, there are now 300 gay Palestinian men secretly living and working in Israel.
Their willingness to live there - despite the risk of being detained and deported as a security threat - is due to Palestinian attitudes towards gay men, they claim. One 22-year-old gay man who fled from Gaza into Israel four years ago told BBC World Service's Outlook programme he was almost killed when his family found out about his sexuality. He says that when he was 18, he was caught with his boyfriend by his brother. "[My brother] brought a stick and hit us," he said. "He tied us up with an iron rope and went to call my dad, and tell my partner's. Then he came back and hit us again." Illegal status The man said he escaped after his brother went out and told his mother and sister-in-law to make sure they did not run away. Jerusalem has had two Gay Pride marches in the last two years "I started crying to my mum, begging her to let us go. So she untied us, and said if my dad found out, he would kill me on the spot. The man said he ran away and, when he discovered his family were hunting for him, fled to Israel. There, he says, he was placed under virtual house arrest because he was viewed as a potential security risk. Shaul Gonen, of Israel's main gay rights lobbying group, Agudah, told Outlook that under international law Israel is obliged to offer asylum to those that seek it. But, he says, it can refuse if the applicants are from an area the state is in conflict with. In practice, Palestinian gays end up being placed under virtual house arrest because of the fear that they may be potential suicide bombers. "They are unable to find proper help," said Mr Gonen. "Everybody blames them for being something dangerous. "The Palestinians say if you are gay, you must be a collaborator, while the Israelis treat you as a security threat." Coercion However, many Palestinian gays say they would still rather live under house arrest in Israel, where homosexuality is not considered a crime, than at home. The 22-year-old who fled his home in Gaza alleged that those who do stay in the occupied territories are often coerced into working for the Palestinian police. The gays are afraid of militant retribution if they return He said that he himself had been stopped by police in Gaza, who had threatened to expose him as a homosexual. He alleged he was told by the police to sleep with another man in order to acquire damaging information about him. The man alleged that after he refused, the Palestinian police had tortured him. "They hit me. They put me in a pool of water with just my head sticking out," he claimed. However, the Israeli secret service also often exploit gay Palestinians, said Mr Gonen. He says this usually involves coercing them into working undercover, to gather information about other Palestinians. The precarious status of the gay community means gay men often end up working for the secret service or as targets for exploitation by Israeli men. "They work as prostitutes, selling their bodies unwillingly because they have to survive," said Mr Gonen. "Sometimes the Israeli secret police try to recruit them, sometimes the Palestinian police try to recruit them. "In the end they find themselves falling between all chairs. Nobody wants to help them, everybody wants to use them." 'Against Allah' Gay Palestinians say they are mainly persecuted at home because of religious attitudes. Many Muslims claim that homosexuality is strictly against the Koran. "From my point of view as a Muslim, this phenomenon is rejected completely," one Palestinian in Gaza told Outlook. "The Islamic religion is merciful - we should try to help them to eliminate this bad phenomenon. "It has a lot of bad things, a lot of disadvantages, a lot of bad sides - regarding their health, regarding their sociability, regarding their association with people around them." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3211772.stm |
For those seeking gay rights in the Middle East, the WORST POSSIBLE THING TO DO is to link gay rights to Israel. Doing so will allow the religious right in the Middle East to develop one more justification for bigotry and oppression. Remember that even in the US government job discimination against Gays used to be justified on the ground that they would be easy targets for blackmail ... The best way to create a movement for gay rights in the Middle East is to make it clear that the struggle for gay rights is part of the SAME movement that also supports Palestinian rights; linking gay rights with Israel will likely set back any moevement for gay rights in Middle Eastern countries by decades (and there is some movement as one could see by the outcry over the arrests of gays in Egypt a few years ago). One would think that this logic would be obvious to everyone but its apparently not (the stupidity of Gay rights activists assuming that promoting Israel will help gay rights in Arab countries is perhaps only equalled by the right-wing US and Israeli supporters of Abbas who havent yet realized that their very endorsement could cause him to lose the election and will make a post election Abbas government powerless)
A fair stance to take is that Israel, a country that respects gay rights, is a better country in that regard than the Arab-Muslim countries right next door that do not respect gay rights.
Perhaps it's time for those Arab-Muslim countries to simply better themselves in this regard.
That is all.
It's a shame that the pro-palestinian people don't insist that arab-muslim countries treat gays better, don't insist that palestinians stop hitting israel with terrorism, don't call for the palestinains to stop trying to destroy israel, and instead encourages people to lie, demonize israel, and always pick the side of any argument that goes against israel.
No wonder there isn't peace.