LGBT rights in State of Palestine | |
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| Status | Mixed legality:
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| Family rights | |
| Recognition of relationships | No recognition of same-sex couples |
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) people in Palestine face legal challenges and discrimination not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Homosexuality is illegal in the Gaza Strip but not in the West Bank, although LGBT rights are not protected in either.
In the territory of Palestine, there is no specific, stand-alone civil rights legislation that protects LGBT people from discrimination or harassment. While hundreds of gay Palestinians are reported to have fled to Israel because of the hostility they face in Palestine,[1] they have also been subject to house arrest or deportation by Israeli authorities, on account of the inapplicability of the law of asylum to areas or nations in which Israel is in conflict.[2]
According to a 2010 compendium of laws against homosexuality produced by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Intersex Association (ILGA), the decriminalization of homosexuality in Palestine is patchwork. On the one hand, same-sex acts were decriminalized in the Jordanian-controlled West Bank in 1951 and remain so to this day. On the other hand, in the Gaza Strip, the British Mandate Criminal Code Ordinance, No. 74 of 1936 remains in force and continues to outlaw same-sex acts between men, although lesbian women are not subjects of the code and their relations are thus, technically, not unlawful.[3] Palestine has no civil rights laws that protect LGBT people from discrimination or harassment.[4]
The Palestinian Authority has not legislated either for or against homosexuality, though "on the legal level, the President of the Palestinian Authority issued his first decision on 20 May 1994 which provided that legislation and laws that were effective before 5 June 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would remain effective" – and, in line with almost all other Palestinian laws, the confused legal legacy of foreign occupation – Ottoman, British, Jordanian, Egyptian and Israeli – continues to determine the erratic application or non-application of the criminal law of homosexuality in each of the territories.[5][6]
A gay Palestinian man called Saif said that "...local Palestinian Authority police are aware and keep files on him and other homosexuals, blackmailing them into working as spies and informants." He reports stories “of guys being called at random and told to come into [Palestinian Authority] police stations, with threats their families would be told about their sexuality if they didn't show up.”[7]
The same report noted that Israeli intelligence offered another gay Palestinian man free entry into Israel on an ongoing basis to visit his Israeli boyfriend if he provided "the names of the organisers, the religious people in the villages and names of children throwing stones at Israeli military jeeps". The report notes that the Israeli Intelligence had been tracking his location through his cell phone. The man did not cooperate, despite fear that the Israelis would reveal his sexuality to his family and community, who would reject him. It is not reported if anything subsequently was disclosed.[7][8]
In February 2016, the armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out the execution of Mahmoud Ishtiwi - one of the group’s leading commanders, under allegations of gay sex and theft.[9] Ishtiwi left two wives and three children.
In August 2019, the Palestinian Authority announced that LGBT groups were forbidden to meet in the West Bank on the grounds that they are “harmful to the higher values and ideals of Palestinian society". This was in response to a planned conference in Nablus by Al-Qaws, a Palestinian LGBT group.[10]
Gay Palestinians frequently seek refuge in Israel fearing for their lives, especially fearing death from members of their own families. [11] "According to lawyer Shaul Gannon, from the Israeli LGBT organisation The Aguda – Israel's LGBT Task Force, around 2,000 Palestinian homosexuals live in Tel Aviv at any one time."[7]
Several Israeli films and or television programs have dealt with the issue of LGBT Palestinians, often having relationships with LGBT Israelis. However, none of these films have been directed by LGBT Palestinians.
A Palestinian National AIDS/HIV Health program was established in 1998. Dr Ezzat Gouda is the current doctor to focus on sexually transmitted diseases for the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Reports claim that very few people have become infected since 1987, and those people who are infected face prejudice and shortages of medicine.[13]
In 2003 a report from the Palestinian Health Minister[14] made some references to the infections, under "communicable diseases".[15]
In the early 2000s, two established groups formed to provide support to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) Palestinian peoples living within the borders of Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Al Qaws ("Rainbow" in Arabic), the first official Palestinian LGBTQ organization, was founded in 2001 as a community project of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance[16] to specifically address the needs of LGBTQ Palestinian people living in Jerusalem. Al-Qaws has expanded since its founding and now hosts social activities in Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa and the West Bank as an arena of support for members of the LGBTQ Palestinian community. Al Qaws also hosts a telephone support line.[17]
In 2002, a second group formed to specifically address the needs of Palestinian lesbian women; Aswat ("Voices" in Arabic) was founded as a project of the Palestinian Feminist NGO Kayan, at the Haifa Feminist Center . Aswat started as an anonymous email-list serving to provide support to Palestinian gay women, and has developed into an established working group that hosts monthly meetings for its approximately 60 members, and organizes lectures, events, and educational opportunities. Aswat translates and publishes original texts related to sexuality and gender identity previously unavailable in the Arabic language, and hosts the largest collection of Arabic-language texts related to homosexuality on its website.[18] Aswat works to raise community awareness on the identities of "Palestinian," "Gay" and "Female."
In 2015 a Palestinian artist named Khaled Jarrar painted a rainbow flag on a section of a West Bank wall. A group of Palestinians painted over it. Jarrar said that he painted the rainbow flag to remind people that even though same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States, Palestinians still live in occupation. Jarrar criticized the paint-over, stating that it "reflects the absence of tolerance, and freedoms in the Palestinian society."[19]
In August 2019, the Palestinian Authority banned LGBTQ community organizations from operating in the West Bank in response to a planned Al Qaws event.[20]
| Same-sex sexual activity legal | West Bank: Legal since 1951 for males; always been legal for femalesGaza:  Male illegal (Penalty: Up to 10 years imprisonment) Legal for females
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| Equal age of consent | West Bank: Gaza: For males / For females
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| Anti-discrimination laws in employment only |
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| Anti-discrimination laws in the provision of goods and services |
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| Anti-discrimination laws in all other areas (incl. indirect discrimination, hate speech) |
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| Same-sex marriages |
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| Recognition of same-sex couples |
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| Step-child adoption by same-sex couples |
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| Joint adoption by same-sex couples |
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| Gays and lesbians allowed to serve openly in the military |
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| Right to change legal gender |
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| Access to IVF for lesbians |
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| Commercial surrogacy for gay male couples |
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| MSM allowed to donate blood |
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