On Friday, Israel’s annual gay pride celebration took over the streets of Tel Aviv, spilling from the sidewalks to the streets to the beaches. Israelis and foreigners alike, who now come from around the world to experience what is quickly becoming one of the hottest pride events in the world danced and celebrated in the streets, enjoying the sunlight waving the traditional LGBT pride rainbow flag as well as Israel’s Star of David. In the official video for Tel Aviv Pride, fabulously dressed drag queens dance on the beach, kissing one another and surrounding attractive men while music pulses in the background, Tel Aviv, habibi, Tel Aviv—for many reasons, it is enticing enough to bring anyone to Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, in Ramallah, or Bethlehem, Nablus, Hebron, Jenin or any other Palestinian city under Israel’s occupation in the West Bank—although technically only a few kilometers away—is a vastly different world from the heavily made up drag queen performers and masculine, attractive men dancing and openly kissing one another on the beach. In Palestine, as in many places with a strong Muslim influence, homosexuality is often seen as a taboo at best and an incurable disease at worst. While there are many homosexuals, many of them choose to stay in the closet—or only come out to a few close friends. For many this means a life in secrecy—but is better than the alternative of being shunned from their families and ostracized from their communities.
Many gay and progressive Palestinians living in the West Bank would love to join Tel Aviv’s gay pride parade—not necessarily to make a political statement on the inclusion of Palestinians, but simply to have fun, feel free and be themselves for a change. However, they cannot. Under the Oslo Accords of 1993, Palestinians living in the West Bank cannot travel to Israel without special permission from the Israeli authorities—even though many of their families ironically trace their roots to towns in present-day Israel. These permits are expensive, difficult to obtain even when money is not an issue and almost never given out for recreational purposes.
Palestinians who are caught trying to leave the West Bank without permission are routinely arrested, detained and often subject to torture and intimidation. If there is any suspicion that they are or might be gay, this information can be used to blackmail them into being informants for the Shin Bet, Israel’s intelligence service and equivalent to the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
S., an anonymous source told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that when he was caught illegally in Israel with his Israeli lover, he was told he could get out of detention if he appeared at a voluntary summons from the Shin Bet. At the summons, they asked him to let them know if he “hears about a demonstration, about who is going, who has a mind to protest, who helps out, who is religious and who throws stones at the soldiers.”
Many Palestinians—fearful that the knowledge about their sexual orientation will get back to their conservative families and communities in the West Bank—comply. In order to protect their personal privacy and themselves from harm, they are forced to become traitors against their own people.
Israel purports itself to be a safe haven for homosexuals, yet refuses to grant asylum to Palestinian refugees—even though it is legally obligated to according to the UN’s Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Since Palestinians living in the West Bank—not to mention, Gaza—need a permit from Israel to leave the country, as well as the West Bank, seeking political asylum outside of the Middle East is also extraordinarily difficult, giving gay Palestinians few options besides being trapped inside of the West Bank.
However, Friday’s parade and celebration seems to have largely ignored this major human rights concern—even though it is Israel’s direct responsibility.
It is also interesting to note that the protest falls on a Friday. As it is, Fridays in Israel and Palestine are already a day of extreme contrasts. In Israel, it is the first day of the weekend–in the religious cities, like Jerusalem, they do the last of their shopping before Shabbos dinner and Shabbat at sundown. In the more secular cities, like Tel Aviv, Israelis of all ages enjoy the day off in the sun on the beach, swim in the warm sea, laze on the beach and play bongo drums late into the night as a festive, musical accompaniment to Shabbat.
In Palestine, Friday is yom al-juma3–which translates to day of the gathering–when Palestinian Muslims “gather” at the Mosque five times a day. It is also the day of the popular demonstrations–when, in villages like Bil’in, Ni’lin, Nabi Saleh, Kufr Qardum and Sebastiyeh Palestinians lay their rugs on the land for noon prayers, worship to the sound of the call to prayer ringing through the open air and then “gather” together, marching on the wall, on the settlements or towards land that has been taken from them by the Israeli authorities in protest and popular resistance.
On the other side of the green line, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) respond to them with suffocating teargas, rubber-coated steel bullets being fired with abandon and sometimes live ammunition. Sometimes the Palestinians demonstrating–some of them seasoned activists, others young children who cannot be older than fourteen–run away, coughing and spluttering teargas, lending onions to one another to breathe through the stench of the gas. Often, someone is injured and has to be taken to the hospital.
Some, like Mustafa Tammimi of Nabi Saleh are fatally injured–an IDF teargas canister shot straight through his head, slicing it in two. They become martyrs for the cause.
This Friday, these contrasts were even starker. In Tel Aviv, gay Israelis and allies from Israel and around the world will drank, danced and made merriment in the streets and on the beaches of Tel Aviv, celebrating both pride and the state of Israel itself–as it boasts, the only country that recognizes LGBT rights in the Middle East. Meanwhile in the West Bank, a gay Palestinian quite possibly reluctantly let an Israeli Shin Bet officer know where the popular demonstrations were taking place–who was attending, what their religions are and how to keep an eye on them. One group–gay Israelis–were celebrated, parading and partying in honor of both their sexuality and their national identity. On the same day, the other group–gay Palestinians–were forced to be traitors to their own people because of the same reasons: their sexuality and their national identity.
For gay Palestinians, queer liberation is inextricably linked to the liberation of Palestine, and Palestinian lives, from Israeli occupation.