What's life like for LGBTQ people in the Palestinian Territories?
Let's look at some of the key equality indicators.
What's life like for LGBTQ people in the Palestinian Territories? Let's look at some of the key equality indicators.
The current situation
It's effectively impossible to consider the experience of LGBTQ people in the Palestinian Territories as Israel's military response to terrorist attacks decimated the lives of everyone, regardless of sexuality.
What's the history of the Palestinian Territories?
In 1922, Palestine came under British control, and a plan to create a national home for the Jewish people began to gain momentum.
In 1948, the British put into effect the partition of Palestine – using part of the territory to create Israel as a state for the Jewish people, and using the other part to create Palestine for the Arabic people that lived there.
The results were incredibly messy – people were forced from their homes, there was civil war, and neighbouring countries attacked Israel.
In the resulting conflict, Israel defeated the countries that had attacked it, and expanded its borders to cover a far greater area than envisaged by the partition plan.
The two bits of territory that remained in Arab control were Gaza and the West Bank.
After decades of instability and conflict – and amidst ongoing uncertainty – the Palestinian Territories are now, in theory, effectively self-governing.
Is it legal to be gay in the State of Palestine?
In "normal" times, there are administrative differences between Gaza and the West Bank that make things a bit confusing.
Technically, male homosexuality is illegal in Gaza but not in the West Bank.This is because they’ve drawn some of their laws from different occupying forces.
In reality, Palestine is such a socially conservative society and homophobia is so widespread and systemic that it’s simplest to describe the State of Palestine as somewhere that homosexuality is illegal.
What’s life like for LGBTQ people in Palestine?
There are no legal protections from discrimination or hate-crimes against LGBTQ people.
Often, LGBTQ people are subjected to violence and abuse from their own families.
There are reports of state-sanctioned persecution of LGBTQ people by police and security forces.
The Palestinian territories are a dangerous place for LGBTQ people. It is a dangerous place for everyone.
