Israeli LGBT youth group reaches out to Palestinian gay youth

Israeli LGBT youth group reaches out to Palestinian gay youth

A LEADING Israeli LGBT youth organisation has launched an Arabic-language translation of its website in an effort to reach out to gay Palestinian youth.

The organisation — Israel Gay Youth (IGY) — is partly funded by the Israeli government and also relies on corporate and private donations to maintain its reach across 22 cities.

IGY chief executive Ran Leabel told Ha’aretz they launched the Arabic-speaking website to tackle the challenge of reaching out to and working with Arabic-speaking gay youth.

“From our meetings we learned that in Arab society, there isn’t a lot of discourse on the gay issue,” he said.

However, a network group for Palestinian LGBT people already exists — Al Qaws (Arabic for “rainbow”) — which was established in 2001 in Jerusalem and has since expanded to Jaffa, Haifa and the West Bank.

There is also a group catering to Palestinian gay women known as Aswat, which has been around since 2002.

The initial plan for IGY’s expansion was to establish an Arabic-speaking discussion group in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, which has a mixed Arab-Jewish population.

However, counsellors from the Palestinian community who were chosen to lead the group advised IGY to do more groundwork research before branching out their services.

“So at this stage we’re not opening a group, but have translated our site, so that at least the information will be accessible to Arabic-speaking youth,” Leabel said.

“We’re also setting up forums in which Arab-speaking guides will provide answers.”

Israel has often been accused of “pinkwashing”, in that its government espouses and purports its positive LGBT human rights record to promote support while downplaying its treatment of Palestinians. The latter includes the widely-criticised settler expansion of the West Bank or the construction of a wall along with travel regulations that make it difficult for many Palestinians inside the West Bank and Gaza to cross over.

A 32-year-old Palestinian counsellor who requested anonymity told Ha’aretz that he had reservations about joining IGY. However, he went on to say that he didn’t think “there’s anything so Zionist in the organisation’s activity that could be a problem for an Arab member”.

The counsellor also told Ha’aretz that his goal was to provide answers to Palestinian gay youth because his experience of growing up in a majority Arabic-speaking town meant he “didn’t know what was gay, and [had] no one to talk to [him] about sexuality, a condom and the most basic, important things”.

Despite active groups such as Al Qaws and Aswat, the counsellor highlighted that a separate group for Palestinians was needed because “[their] education is very different from the Jewish one”.

The Israel Health Ministry has acknowledged that the gay community is considered a “high-risk” group when it comes to mental health issues, and that LGBT youth in the Arabic-speaking community are especially disadvantaged and distanced.

“We want to create a place that Arab youth can choose to be a part of,” Leabel said.

“We won’t blur their Arab identity but give it weight and space.”

[Editor’s note: This story was updated at 6.05pm.]

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31 responses to “Israeli LGBT youth group reaches out to Palestinian gay youth”

  1. A good and positive effort, reaching out to brother and sister queers in a part of the world where humanity is seldom heard amongst the shouting.

  2. It annoys me when antisemitism is dressed up as concern for Arabs. This article has nothing to do with the Israeli Government but is about a community LGBTI youth organisation trying to reach out to Palestinian youth. This isn’t about the ongoing conflict or Zionism or religious hatred. This is about young people concerned for the welfare of other young people. Aside from that Israel IS a liberal state. Some of you need to get over your hatred of Jews, it’s not healthy.

    • I am Jewish, and I think it’s outrageous that this article paint israel as supportive to Gay palestinians. Hate to burst the pink washing bubble but gays are absolutely able to be killed by bombs raining down on Gaza, and the economic privations that exist there now as a result.

  3. We have our own fucking LGBT organisations. Calm down. Israel is bombing the fuck out of my people and you want us Palestinians to feel GRATEFUL?

    • The idiot who wrote this “news” should have done their research beforehand! But then again what else can you expect from star observer. It gave platform to a racist Anglo who tired to justify racism using tired old Grindr quote “if saying no to sleeping with women doesn’t make me sexist why should saying no to a particular race or skin colour make me racist?” I mean really? And this dude is studying journalism. We can surely expect to see him writing for Murdoch media !

    • Lesson learnt by SSO staff: don’t ever mention contraversial topics.

      I know you tried but the hot heads who seem to shout loudly discourage any kind of discussion.

    • Oh, come on. Controversy isn’t the issue here; it’s the idea that this is somehow meritorious. I’m okay with balanced reporting; which is why I’m grateful to the SSO for editing the piece to include a clarification.

  4. This is nothing new…Israel and Tel Aviv in particular is full of gay Arabs from the territories who flee from execution from the PA and Hamas.

    • I generally like it when people or organisations take action on human rights issues. Israel is the only state in the world that gets attacked for doing something good. That’s called antisemitism. Or do you accuse every Australian organisation taking action on racism of blackwashing. This is just ridiculous. Plus, this is a Queer organisation trying to reach out to Palestine queer youth. That makes the already ridiculous pinkwashing argument even more ridiculous.

    • people need to do their own research on pink washing and what is going on. but summary gay rights used to some how ligitmize or make out it makes a difference to the dessemation and ethnic cleansing of palestinians. bomb the shit out of them but look we have gay rights. many stories of gay palestinians blackmailed to spy and all kinds of horrendous things used against them. but always plenty of media attention on how tolerant and liberal israel is. to criticise israel is not anti semetic

    • It seems like the words “Israel” and “gay/queer” trigger some form of verbal diarrhea in some people. Just to get this straight: This private community-based queer organisation in Israel tries to reach out to Palestinian queer youth (in Israel I assume) to justify ethnic cleansin and genocideg?

      Just answer one question for me… Imagine an Australian Queer group now reaches out to queer Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. According to your logic, this group doesn’t do good but only reaches out to queer ATSI people to justify racism and the genocide of ATSI people?

      Remember, this article has nothing to do with the Israeli Government but with a private community-based organisation. What should they do? Nothing? Not reaching out to Palestinian youth? Leaving them completely alone to avoid this Judith-Butler-Bullshit? No, criticising Israel is not antisemitic, but using different standards when criticising Israel is. And using articles that have close to zero to do with the idea of “pinkwashing” to criticise the work of a private community-based organisation doing something FOR Palestinian youth is at least awkward. 

    • your comment shows how little you understand whats going on over there and the relationship is nothing like here in australia. the way arabs are treated there. If you are verse in pinnkwashing and what how heavily involved the israeli government are in all areas you will know how common it is to see articles like this . Its an on going narrative of painting Israel as liberal and following human rights whilst painting palestinians as barbaric and intolerant. dont believe everything you read

    • Daniel, calm down. There are good non-government organisations in Israel, and they do a lot of good work. This is not bad in and of itself. The problem is that this is being used to absolve Israel of its human rights abuses and war crimes against Palestinian civilians. Moreover, it supposes that there are no LGBT organisations in Palestine when there are several. It’s essentially orientalist in assuming that all Arabs are homophobic and backwards. Palestinians can take care of themselves, we don’t need to be looked after by anyone else.

    • My sympathies with the Israeli government are comparably low as they have some problems with respecting the territory of other states and generally with human rights. But, you know, I like criticising people for doing something wrong. Criticising someone for something they actually do right sounds a bit awkward.  You do know how Aboriginal people are treated in Australia, right? And I still don’t understand how this organisation did something bad by helping queer Palestinian people. So, doing nothing would’ve been better for them? 

    • Fahad, nobody said that. Other people are using the good work of this organisation for their political campaign.I never said anything else. And I thing that is unfair and disgusting. And not helpful whatsoever. 

    • Let’s just hope that Israel become more homophobic in future to somehow help Palestinian civilians. Don’t know how that works, but it obviously does