Palestinian Gays Under Hijab

By Nisreen & Dayna


While we all are shocked by the shooting attack at the gay youth center in Tel-Aviv last week, that as result of it 2 young people lost their lives, Palestinian lesbians and gays need to face both the homophobic street and the racist leaders of the Israeli gay community who refuse to give the stage for Palestinian speakers, neither for former member of Knesset Issam Machool, nor for representative of Aswat – Palestinian gay women group base in Haifa. For the organizers and by their words “they can’t go as far as this”!!!!

What do they mean by “going as far as this”?!!!!

While in the world the legend of the democratic country of the middle east keep announce its jingles regard its tolerant city Tel Aviv that provide, as they say, a shelter of the Palestinian gays running from their society and families, The Palestinian gay community and supporters are excluded on purpose from public events specifically from the solidarity anti homophobic demonstration held yesterday in Rabin Square.

Although the stage was full of politicians, the Palestinians were avoided from it cause the organisers didn't want the stage to turn "political stage". Few of the speakers known as homophobic ones, the majority of the gay community in Israel believe their struggle has nothing to do with “politics”, this is what explains the instant need for “social peace”, that a gay activists and victim of the attack talked about, distinguish from the other peace, supposedly the “bad” one, the forbidden peace!!!

Living in a conflict zone where people die and kill every day and violence is everywhere make people less sensitive to violence surrounding them, less sensitive to gender violence, killing of women, to xenophobia to racisms and to other's life, this is how a thousand people and more can be killed in less than one month in Gaza and all keep silence.

While the Israeli society, including the Israeli gay community, choose to ignore the increase level of internal hate and violence affected by the level of the occupation and its violence, this violence keep raising and infecting others. Instead of facing this problematic and complicated situation the leaders of the gay community choose to exclude the Palestinian gays and supporters and to push them back to the closet, it’s easiest and it goes hand by hand with the legend they create and promote.

The highlight of the event was the presence of the Israeli President Shimon Perez showing public solidarity to the gay community. Despite his former homophobic record, by his sentence "we are the do-not-kill nation" he enforces the public blindness to the mass killing of Palestinians that occur often and frequently by the country of this nation. In addition to that, his message publicly condescend other nations regionally and worldwide.

For the Palestinian gays who live and struggle for their lives under the occupation, Tel Aviv is not an alternative or a safe shelter, the few who succeed to do their way to Tel Aviv end up living and working in the streets, not once they are victims of the Israeli propaganda that use their cases to promote this image.

In fact, for the Israeli gay community and its leaders, the Palestinian gays including those who are citizens of Israel are excluded and not welcome, they prefer to keep them into the closet and if it need to push them back there, this way they can keep telling their legend the way they like, and if it was up to them they will put them under the Hijab, while the image of the Hijab in the west is lack of human rights, women's rights and gay rights in the non-western countries. By this they can be the only ones who can tell how the Palestinian gays or lesbians look like and they will have a good excuse to attack and occupy their countries and societies as they believe they are the freedom protectors!!!!!

While we believe homophobia is equal to racism and hate is equal to hate and murder is equal to murder, the majority of the Israeli gay community choose not to see the link and to ignore other kinds of violence abundant in the Israeli society.
The killing broke the image of the paradise of gays in the Middle East, as a result it create a worldwide international solidarity wave. Seeing all these people going out in solidarity make us wonder regarding the message of this solidarity reaction, is it mourning the lose of the non-realistic image of the gay paradise in the middle east or is it a call for raising voices against homophobia infecting all societies around the world??!!!

© Nisreen Mazzawi – Feminist activist, for peace and Environmental-social Justice.