In this blog, we’ve been having a lively debate about the nature of gay life in Israel (see comment thread). It’s terribly sad and ironic that our discussion has been punctuated by this horrible news of a homocidal/homophobic attack on an Israel gay community center in Tel Aviv. A gunman clad entirely in black opened fire with an automatic weapon on a group of gay teenagers who were attending a weekly support group. A boy and girl died on the spot and a third died in hospital [NOTE: Israeli media say that 2 died, but Agence France Presse claims an Israeli “official” reported a third died. This appears inaccurate.]
No one should make the mistake of over-generalizing about whether this attack represents a broader trend of homophobia in Israeli society. As I wrote here earlier, Israel is certainly less homophobic than surrounding Arab states, but less tolerant than many western nations. Anti-gay attacks have taken place in other places though I can’t remember such a serial murder in the U.S. or other places.
I think it’s best to let a leader of the Israeli gay community speak on the subject:
“It is not surprising that such a crime can be committed given the incitement of hatred against the homosexual community,” the president of Tel Aviv’s gay and lesbian community, Mai Pelem, told reporters.
In the past, swastikas had been painted at the entrance to the center.
The head of Israel’s gay and lesbian national association, Mike Hamel, said: “In our worst nightmares we could not have imagined that the hatred against our community, which is hurting nobody, could go this far.”
Haaretz’s story quotes a survivor:
“At about 10.40 P.M. someone came over, all dressed in black and wearing a black mask,” he recounted the unfolding of the incident. “I thought it was a joke at first, but he immediately opened fire. People took cover under the bed and tables, but there were no screams. I hid under a table with someone else. It’s a small place; there’s just one terrace. Once you’re inside, there’s nowhere to run.”
Gil came to the center every week to take part in activities for teenagers.
…”I love this place,” Gil concluded, “but I don’t know if I will ever go back there. I want to, but it’s too soon to say.
I was disturbed to hear that the police have closed a gay bar that abutted the community center. UPDATE: Reuters reports this deeply distressing development:
Israeli media said police had warned other gay clubs in Tel Aviv to close for fear of a follow-up attack.
Why? Why should gays slink back to their homes, draw the curtains and retreat to the closet?? You’d think the police would insist that they remain open and provide security to ensure the safety of all customers. Closing the city’s gay bars gives the attacker a victory of sorts and casts doubt on where the priorities of the police lie.
In a comment in another thread here, Hasbara Buster posted this quotation from the Jerusalem Post:
“I warned in a column last year that Israel is a place which, on the one hand has liberal laws, but on the other does not attempt to counter homophobia,” Danny Zak, a gay activist and journalist, told the Post during the demonstration. “A murder was waiting to happen,” Zak added.
“The Shas party has the blood of two innocent kids on their hands,” he said. “Shas has blamed gays for earthquakes and diseases. This is incitement, but no one is put on trial for it,” he said.
Zak has begun to probe the main issue here. But to go farther, minorities in Israel are always second-class citizens whether they be Arab citizens or gays. There is no fundamental understanding or appreciation for human rights within Israeli society because there is no constitution that protects them as a foundational principle. So at best minorities in Israel are tolerated. Until the Occupation is ended and Israel faces the deficencies in its social contract, there will be more such violence.
And we should make no mistake by seeing the killings of Israeli Arabs on a bus by a homicidal settler or of Palestinian farmers by Israeli settlers as any different than the killing of gay Israeli teenagers. The killer’s rage may stem from slightly different sources but the problem is the same in every case: Israel does not understand the rights of the individual or the value of the minority.
H/t to Alex Stein.
There seems to be some disagreement between the different sources as to whether 2 or 3 people were killed.
Richard, when I try to include the URL of my website I’m told that my IP has been associated with spam in the past. Can anything be done to rehabilitate me?
Sorry for that. I have an overactive spam filter that occassionally goes haywire like this. Tell me what your URL is & I’ll add it myself and see if I can prevent you receiving this error msg.
OK; my URL is:
http://thehasbarabuster.blogspot.com
No one knows who this killer was. For all we know, it could be an angry Haredi, or a homophobic nutjob, or a distraught ex-lover of one of the people in the club.
No one knows, so to blame anyone (be it Shas, or whoever) is as ‘tolerant’ as the wrong statements by the various Shas people.
It is worse than that, discrimination is woven into the fabric of the society and State of Israel. The root of the problem is a culture where many believe in, and are encouraged to believe in the efficacy of violence and the importance of physical supremacy.
Your comments yesterday “Extremist Settlers Call Obama ‘Nigger,’ ‘Arab’” now seem almost clairvoyant.
Miles, discrimination is inherent in the very concept and definition of the State. You cannot have an ethnocratic state that is not by its very nature discriminatory, and when you establish an ethnocratic state on land inhabited by members of the “wrong” ethnicities – well, we have seen what happens.
I’m interested if this principle applies to other countries. In the United States there are regular violent attacks against minority groups. Is this because the United States does not recognise the rights of the individual or the value of the minority, or is it for some other reason?
Actually, yes it is because the attacker has no understanding of the American constitutional system & the need for tolerance & appreciation of the value that minorities add to our society. The diff. bet. the U.S. & Israel is that we have a constitutional system and those who violate it are considered aberrant and are punished for it. In Israel, I’m afraid this is hit or miss. Who understands that when Shas speaks vile filth about Israeli gays that it is fundamentally undermining the social contract? Who makes Shas pay a political price for its hate?
[comment deleted for comment rules violation]
good points at the end of the article. as a palestinian, i agree that discrimination stems from a deeper form of imbalance; it is never incidental. but if we are to acknowledge “minorities” as equals, we should also recognize and identify them for who they are– it starts with respecting and recognizing the person or group with their proper names. “israeli arabs” are palestinians with israeli citizenship– in other words, they are palestinians. perhaps “israeli arab” would be a more appropriate label to identify israeli jews from morocco, iraq, syria, etc. this is a term that has been imposed on palestinians residing in the ‘48 regions and one which has attempted to deny our heritage and identity.
One of my readers pointed this out to me and I’d like to come up with a 2 word descriptive phrase if possible that is easier & quicker to type than Palestinians with Israeli citizenship. Perhaps Israeli Palestinians though I’m not sure that would be clear enough to readers.
Richard, Palestinians don’t like to be identified as Israelis, especially since this was imposed on them. The most appropriate term, if you must describe them with a term other than Palestinian, is ’48 Palestinians. This is also a term that we use to describe Palestinians from the regions that were stolen in 1948.
It is so degrading for a Palestinian to be identified as an Israeli that we refer to the ID documents (which also have been imposed) as “blue”
I don’t want to dispute your view since you have a closer awareness of the issue than I, but Israeli public opinion polls of Palestinian Israelis don’t attest to this utter rejection of everything Israeli. In fact, these citizens of the state seem to yearn for integration into it (on equal footing of course, rather than the piecemeal deal they now get).
This poll was probably funded by the Israeli government, which I am sure was not instigated in the favour of Palestinians living in Israel. Integration in Israel is equatable to apartheid and this is a well-known fact. Furthermore, Palestinians are the only ones who are required to integrate. They are expected forget their heritage and identity, both of which are denied. Perhaps the poll confused equality with integration. They simply want to be treated as dignified human beings and not constantly be harrassed and discriminated against. They are sick of being second-class citizens. Just like gays all over the world, they want to live in peace and harmony. But that doesn’t mean they want to be called Israelis. I think you have to look deeper than this poll and understand what people have endured since 1948 to understand this. It’s a sign of disrespect.
That’s not fair. I would NEVER quote a poll funded by the Israeli government, nor do I believe the government conducts polls that it makes public. This was a legitimate independent poll published in an Israeli newspaper. And it’s not the only one either. I’m afraid I’m with Azmi Bishara on this: Israel must become a state of all its citizens, meaning Palestinian Israeli citizens must receive full, equal rights. This does NOT mean losing their heritage or historical experience. In order to do that they must be integrated within Israel itself. I’m sorry you see such equality (strangely, I might add) as apartheid. Or did you misunderstand my pt of view?
A couple of thoughts on this:
I think one of the reasons most Palestinian citizens of Israel do not appreciate being called Israeli is precisely that it identifies them with a country and a first-tier “fellow citizenry” tat rejects them both symbolically and practically. Therefore, calling them Israeli seems like a lie, and a patronizing, insulting one at that.
I think also that we should not conflate wishing to be treated as equal citizens with equal rights, equal privileges, equal treatment, and equal recognition and respect for their ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and religious identity with wishing to identify and be identified as Israeli. They are two rather different things.
i agree shirin, well said. that was my point in a posting above: that wishing for equality does not equate with being identified as an israeli, even a palestinian israeli (which is an oxymoron).
richard, perhaps i should have first asked where this poll came from. but an israeli nespaper doesn’t really write in the favour of palestinians, does it? equality doesn’t means they wish they could live without the israeli influences imposed on them. can you imagine what it feels like to walk through the streets of haifa with all the israeli flags waving around all over the place? in the OT they’re used to mark settlements and checkpoints, in israel they are a reminder of the nakba.
i didn’t misunderstand your point of view, i think you misunderstood me as claiming that you promote apartheid. i didn’t say that. what i meant is that the current situation is an apartheid situation. in the west bank and gaza it has been administered physically with the wall, in israel it is a mental form of apartheid.
when azmi bishara he speaks of integration he means both ways. why do you think he got so much flack from the government? i don’t think that he would ask any palestinian to start waving the israeli flag or to join the military (even though some have) or to practice all the rights that israelis enjoy (as shirin just described) because many of them were implemented when this so-called democracy was created exclusively for jews. therefore, in order to achieve true equality in israel, the system must be changed from within. and i don’t see that happening anytime soon.
I completely agree on both pts. But one of the reasons I write this blog is to lobby for precisely these changes. As to flags and other national symbols, I agree that Israel needs to have symbols that are inclusive of all its citizens. But lots more needs to change including laws, a need for a constitution guaranteeing equal rights for majority & minority (whether they be Jewish or Muslim/Christian).
I don’t think Israel should expect its minority population to serve in the IDF until the army and society itself reflect this diversity and equality for all. But at that point, I would expect Arab citizens to participate in society’s institutions & I think they would want to do so.
I also don’t think you should paint the Israeli brush with a broad negative brush. I believe I read the poll in either Haaretz or Yediot, which are generally (though not always) reliable & independent papers. Believe me, I have my antennae up whenever I read material that is this contentious. I was frankly surprised by these findings. But fr. what I can tell they generally reflect opinion within the Palestinian Israeli population. I’m not saying these views are unanimous because clearly there are many nationalists who side w. yr perspective & that is certainly a legitimate one within that community. I’m just making the pt that there is not unanimity on this subject.
I think it is unfair to label me as a nationalist. I am patriotic and passionate about my cause and I love being Palestinian, but that is different than being a nationalist.
As long as Israel has a political agenda to destroy, deny and insult everything Palestinian, the brush that it paints itself with remains negative 😉
I didn’t mean “nationalist” in a pejorative way. I suppose there can be people of various political stripes who can hold the views you do. But I am most familiar with these being called “nationalist” in a Palestinian (& Israeli) context. But if the term was wrong I apologize.
🙂
apology accepted!
The problem with ” ’48 Palestinians” is that it is to broad, and would tend to be confusing. It is generally used to refer to the victims of the ethnic cleansing of ’48. I think of it as meaning Palestinians who were there prior to ’48 and are now no longer there due to having been ethnically cleansed. To me it also has never referred to the descendants of Palestinians who were there in 1948.
no shirin, this term specifically means those living in israel after the 1948 expulsions. you have the ’67 territories (the occupied territories) and the ’48. the ones that fled or were evicted are referred to in arabic as “laji3een” or exiled.
With respect, Nihal, not everyone uses exactly the same terminology in the same way. Yes, we use Al Laji3een to refer to those who were ethnically cleansed in 1948, but we have also call them ’48ers, or 1948 Palestinians in both English and Arabic, and so do many of the Palestinians I know who were expelled in 1948.
But it is not a subject for argument. Different people use different terms, but the concepts stay the same. Referring to Palestinians as simply “Arabs” is inaccurate, since not all Palestinians are Arabs, and it is a way, often conscious, of denying them their identity.
Alex, I’m afraid you haven’t responded to my point on the other thread.
Israeli Jewish society is sick. The name of its sickness is hate. There exists a basic hate which cuts across the whole society, which is hate of Arabs. I would say 85% of Israeli Jews are infected with it. And it’s a toxic, virulent hate; a hate of almost cosmical proportions nowhere to be found with such an intensity in any other Western society, with the possible exception of hate of Gypsies in Eastern Europe.
That hate has become normalized in Israel. From the ignorant Sephardi masses who shout “Death to the Arabs” to the sophisticated scholars who state “Ben Gurion’s mistake was not to expell the remaining Arabs,” just about everyone hates the Arabs.
And when hating one minority is the norm, hating other groups becomes socially more acceptable. Be it the gays, immigrant workers, Ethiopians, Breaking the Silence, etc.
But it all starts with hate of Arabs.
Sorry Hasbara Buster I don’t have regular net access this week.
I think Israeli society has an increasingly serious problem of racism towards Arabs; partly a result of the growing toll of the conflict and partly a result of the increasing triumph of the ethnocentric aspects of Zionism. But to speak of 85% seems excessive, not to mention the frankly absurd “of almost cosmical proportions.”
How often do you visit Israel?
hi alex, i have lived there and didn’t meet more than a handful of israelis that genuinely treated me with respect after telling them i was palestinian. and those were all people that had previously served in the army and taken a change of mind afterwards. and out of these really friendly israelis, all of them were closet zionists!
everyone knows how much brainwashing goes on in the army, especially before. i am aware that it is a popular argument amongst israelis to claim that military service is mandatory, but something only remains that way without protest or a revolution. and i personally have not met many israelis that want to make any concessions to make lives more bearable for palestinians. only a few that protest on a daily basis or that moved away.
last year, the large majority of israeli citizens were in favour of the genocidal attacks on gaza– i think that says a lot about this society.
I don’t see why it matters how many homosexuals were killed as long as some were
RE: “Israeli police indicate that Avigdor Lieberman’s indictment is near.”
MY COMMENT: Hang in there, Avigdor. Remember your days as a tough guy bouncer in Moldova. Never give up! Never give up! Never give up! Hold on to your cabinet position and make them prove these scurrilous, politically-motivated allegations in a court of law!
PS. No insinuations or generalizations were intended by the preceding comment.
I was devastated reading about this awful attack, but I agree that, until we know who did this and what their motive was, we should withhold blame.
I just observed Tisha B’Av for the first time, with a gay/lesbian/bi/trans congregation in New York City. One of our Rabbis spoke of the evils of sinat chinam, senseless hate. The only way to truly fight senseless hate is to look within ourselves and see that none of us is free of it, that we all need to fight it. Israel can never be whole until we realize that we are all God’s children and all are deserving of equal rights and mutual respect. Although I realize religion can often divide, I do believe that profound faith can also heal and bring us together. I also truly believe that gay, lesbian, bi, trans and queer people have a special mission in this world – we will be the corner stone of a new peace – I pray the common struggle faced by Jewish, Muslim and non-religous gays will bring us together and allow us to guide the entire world to a better future.
My heart aches for these beautiful children whose lives have been cut so short, for those whose lives have been forever changed, and for their families and their friends.
RE: “Israel is certainly less homophobic than surrounding Arab states, but less tolerant than many western nations.”
FROM YNET: ‘50% of gay teens physically or sexually abused’, by Yael Branovsky, 08/03/09
Gay community reps meet with Social Affairs Ministry officials, introduce data suggesting 80% of gay teens in Israel suffer some sort of sexual orientation-related abuse.
(EXCERPT) “…In the aftermath, representatives of the gay community have met with Social Affairs Ministry officials and presented them with daunting information: According to their data, 80% of gay teens have been subject to verbal abuse due to their sexual orientation and about half of them have suffered some sort of physical and/or sexual abuse…”
ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3756038,00.html
PS. No insinuations or generalizations were intended by the preceding comment.
very interesting article written by an american israeli.
for those interested in what palestinians living in israel experience (regarding the remarks at the end of the article), this is just the tip ofthe iceberg.
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=109283129139&comments=