Al-Fatiha — which calls itself the principal international organization promoting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Arabs — is located not in Beirut or Cairo, but in Washington, D.C. And no wonder: The international movement for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people hardly exists inside the Muslim world.
Arab human rights organizations sometimes advocate for gay rights, but they do so sotto voce. In fact, the only country in the Middle East in which gay people may safely leave the closet is Israel. Which is why, for gay Palestinians, Tel Aviv is Mecca.
Gay Palestinian men flee to Israel because they are not safe in the West Bank and Gaza. They also have no place else to go.
“Israel is close and far at the same time,” says Haneen Maikey, a gay rights activist with Jerusalem Open House, one of the principal gay rights organizations in Israel. If the sexuality of a gay man in Palestine is exposed, his family might torture or kill him and the police will turn a blind eye.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Stories from the Territories
Mahmoud Zahar - Hamas Foreign Minister
“Are these the laws for which the Palestinian street is waiting? For us to give rights to homosexuals and to lesbians, a minority of perverts and the mentally and morally sick?”
Rami - 23 yearl old Gaza Refugee living in Tel Aviv
“When I was 11, I remember Fatah and other militant groups dragging people suspected of being gay out of their homes. They would break their legs and other bones and some were executed in public. Then the police would write on a wall the reason for the beating or killing as being against the morality of Islam.”
“Tel Elawa is the famous jail in Gaza up on a hill. There were many cells where people were tortured. Some rooms were pitch black, full of rats and cockroaches where you would be just left. Other people were given electric shocks; some had their heads tied into a sack full of shit.”
“You would be forced to sit on a glass bottle then kicked around until it broke inside you.”
Freikh Abu Meday - Minister of Justice for the PA
“We do not have a problem with this subject as there are no homosexuals living in the Palestinian Authority.”
Joseph Massad - AP of Modern Arab Politics & Intellectual History at Columbia University
"The Gay International whose "discourse ... produces homosexuals as well as gays and lesbians, where they do not exist."
"Orientalist impulse ... continues to guide all branches of the human rights community."
"For the Gay International, transforming sexual practices into identities through the universalizing of gayness and gaining 'rights' for those who identify (or more precisely, are identified by the Gay International) with it becomes the mark of an ascending civilization, just as repressing those rights and restricting the circulation of gayness is a mark of backwardness and barbarism,"
“Are these the laws for which the Palestinian street is waiting? For us to give rights to homosexuals and to lesbians, a minority of perverts and the mentally and morally sick?”
Rami - 23 yearl old Gaza Refugee living in Tel Aviv
“When I was 11, I remember Fatah and other militant groups dragging people suspected of being gay out of their homes. They would break their legs and other bones and some were executed in public. Then the police would write on a wall the reason for the beating or killing as being against the morality of Islam.”
“Tel Elawa is the famous jail in Gaza up on a hill. There were many cells where people were tortured. Some rooms were pitch black, full of rats and cockroaches where you would be just left. Other people were given electric shocks; some had their heads tied into a sack full of shit.”
“You would be forced to sit on a glass bottle then kicked around until it broke inside you.”
Freikh Abu Meday - Minister of Justice for the PA
“We do not have a problem with this subject as there are no homosexuals living in the Palestinian Authority.”
Joseph Massad - AP of Modern Arab Politics & Intellectual History at Columbia University
"The Gay International whose "discourse ... produces homosexuals as well as gays and lesbians, where they do not exist."
"Orientalist impulse ... continues to guide all branches of the human rights community."
"For the Gay International, transforming sexual practices into identities through the universalizing of gayness and gaining 'rights' for those who identify (or more precisely, are identified by the Gay International) with it becomes the mark of an ascending civilization, just as repressing those rights and restricting the circulation of gayness is a mark of backwardness and barbarism,"
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The American Jewish woman who brought feminism to Israel
From Haaretz.
For months the Knesset speaker rejected Marcia Freedman's request to speak about domestic violence in the legislature. In the end, the Knesset member finally received permission to raise the issue. "I hadn't even finished saying the words 'Honorable speaker, honorable Knesset,' when the heckling began," recalls Freedman, who is now 71. "Why the discrimination in how you're bringing up the issue?" shouted one MK from the Liberal party. "Why aren't you talking about wives who beat their husbands?" His colleagues giggled and several more similar jokes were made throughout her entire speech.
For months the Knesset speaker rejected Marcia Freedman's request to speak about domestic violence in the legislature. In the end, the Knesset member finally received permission to raise the issue. "I hadn't even finished saying the words 'Honorable speaker, honorable Knesset,' when the heckling began," recalls Freedman, who is now 71. "Why the discrimination in how you're bringing up the issue?" shouted one MK from the Liberal party. "Why aren't you talking about wives who beat their husbands?" His colleagues giggled and several more similar jokes were made throughout her entire speech.
Hate Speech Growing in the Age of the Internet
From Towelroad.
The internet is allowing hate speech and groups to flourish, says a new report from the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance:
"Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized the way people communicate. But, those sites also give racists and terrorists a public platform to spread their hateful messages. 'We've seen an increase of almost 40 percent,' said Wiesenthal Center Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper. 'We're looking at over 11,500 problematic websites.' When Timothy McVeigh orchestrated the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the Internet was home to only one known hate site. 88-year-old white supremacist James Von Brunn, who shot a security guard at the National Holocaust Museum last year, kept an anti-Semitic website. Authorities say Colleen LaRose, aka "Jihad Jane", used YouTube for her alleged terror activities."
Just recently, David Badash over at The New Civil Rights Movement outlined a number of anti-gay hate sites, which, once pointed out, were hastily removed from Facebook.
The internet is allowing hate speech and groups to flourish, says a new report from the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance:
"Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized the way people communicate. But, those sites also give racists and terrorists a public platform to spread their hateful messages. 'We've seen an increase of almost 40 percent,' said Wiesenthal Center Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper. 'We're looking at over 11,500 problematic websites.' When Timothy McVeigh orchestrated the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the Internet was home to only one known hate site. 88-year-old white supremacist James Von Brunn, who shot a security guard at the National Holocaust Museum last year, kept an anti-Semitic website. Authorities say Colleen LaRose, aka "Jihad Jane", used YouTube for her alleged terror activities."
Just recently, David Badash over at The New Civil Rights Movement outlined a number of anti-gay hate sites, which, once pointed out, were hastily removed from Facebook.
Sacha Baron Cohen gets sued... shocker!
From USA Today.
A Palestinian shopkeeper and father portrayed as a terrorist in the movie Bruno is suing film star Sacha Baron Cohen, David Letterman and others for libel and slander.
The lawsuit filed last week by Ayman Abu Aita in District of Columbia federal court seeks $110 million in damages.
In the movie, Cohen plays a gay Austrian fashion journalist trying to make it big in the United States. To achieve worldwide fame, Bruno travels to the Middle East to make peace. He interviews Abu Aita, and a caption labels the Bethlehem shopkeeper as a member of the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.
A Palestinian shopkeeper and father portrayed as a terrorist in the movie Bruno is suing film star Sacha Baron Cohen, David Letterman and others for libel and slander.
The lawsuit filed last week by Ayman Abu Aita in District of Columbia federal court seeks $110 million in damages.
In the movie, Cohen plays a gay Austrian fashion journalist trying to make it big in the United States. To achieve worldwide fame, Bruno travels to the Middle East to make peace. He interviews Abu Aita, and a caption labels the Bethlehem shopkeeper as a member of the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.The Knesset Passes Civil Union Bill... But leaves gays out
From the Jpost.
With one of two crucial bills still in limbo, Israel Beiteinu succeeded late Monday night in passing a limited civil union bill, which would enable Israelis with no officially defined religion to join in civil union. But with no agreement reached on the conversion bill, coalition partners Shas decided to oppose the civil union measure.Israel Beiteinu had promised – and grounded in its coalition agreement with the Likud – that by the one-year anniversary of the forming of the government, on March 31, it would succeed in legislating a civil union bill.That anniversary falls during the Knesset recess that begins on Thursday, meaning that Israel Beiteinu needed to pass the bill before the end of the winter session. In an effort to do so, the party received exemptions last week from the House Committee from the usually required waiting-periods between hearings and votes on bills.
With one of two crucial bills still in limbo, Israel Beiteinu succeeded late Monday night in passing a limited civil union bill, which would enable Israelis with no officially defined religion to join in civil union. But with no agreement reached on the conversion bill, coalition partners Shas decided to oppose the civil union measure.Israel Beiteinu had promised – and grounded in its coalition agreement with the Likud – that by the one-year anniversary of the forming of the government, on March 31, it would succeed in legislating a civil union bill.That anniversary falls during the Knesset recess that begins on Thursday, meaning that Israel Beiteinu needed to pass the bill before the end of the winter session. In an effort to do so, the party received exemptions last week from the House Committee from the usually required waiting-periods between hearings and votes on bills.
Jewish Borough President of Brooklyn attends Gay Vigil
From Towelroad. 
A group of gay activists held a "kiss-out" in the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn late yesterday afternoon near the spot where a man was brutally attacked by five men after leaving a gay event at South Brooklyn Pizza last week.Groups of four couples stationed themselves on street corners in the neighborhood and kissed for 20 minutes.
The action was followed a couple hours later by a vigil. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn Brooklyn, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Congressmember Nydia Velazquez, Congressmember Yvette Clarke, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assemblymember Joan Millman, were among those scheduled to attend.
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