Gay jenin, palestine

Majd, a gay Palestinian man, comes from a village near Jenin in the West Bank’s north. It’s an area of conservative social values and a heartland for Islamist political groups.

An Economist article says you will become an agent for Shin Bet, the Israel Security Agency, to avoid being outed to your family. The film Out in the Dark says that you will fall in love with an attractive Israeli lawyer who will help you seek refuge in Tel Aviv. A Jew will tell you that Palestinian homosexuals live a life of constant danger, whereas in Israel they would enjoy an open existence.

LGBT Rights in Palestine: homosexuality, gay marriage, gay adoption, serving in the military, sexual orientation discrimination protection, changing legal gender, donating blood, age of consent, and more.

Israel presents itself as an LGBT haven in the region, but for Palestinians it offers neither refuge nor solidarity. W hen Daoud, a veteran queer activist, recently walked past rainbow flags hung for Pride month in the old port city of Jaffa, a historic centre of Palestinian culture, he was overcome by a wave of revulsion. One shows Israeli soldier Yoav Atzmoni, in battle fatigues, in front of buildings reduced to rubble by Israeli airstrikes.

Majd, a gay Palestinian man, comes from a village near Jenin in the West Bank’s north. It’s an area of conservative social values and a heartland for Islamist political groups.

IN THE MONTH since Israel invaded the Jenin Refugee Camp on April 3, around bodies have been recovered. Residents of the camp talk of other bodies not yet accounted for, bodies of men whose executions were witnessed by their families. The fact that these bodies have not yet turned up has led most in Israel and some in the international community to dismiss claims of a massacre, and to write off eyewitness testimony of metal trucks with black bags loaded into them that were driven out of the camp.

Saif shuffles awkwardly. Saif is wondering what would happen if his homosexuality was made public. As a gay guy in the Palestinian West Bank, such information could see him murdered.