Mourning the victims. Rallying for equality

Last Saturday night at 11 PM, a masked man entered the community center of the Israeli Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Association in Tel Aviv and began shooting indiscriminately.

Minutes later, the shooter walked out of the center and blended into the night, leaving behind him two dead youths - Liz Trubeshi and Nir Katz - along with 11 wounded, 4 of them critically, and an Israeli gay community in shock and in mourning.

With a court-imposed gag order preventing the media from reporting on the details of the police investigation, it is difficult for anyone to say for sure whether this was - as a great many in Israel suspect - a homophobic hate crime.

But what the murder has revealed is that, notwithstanding the largely tolerant atmosphere afforded by a liberal Tel Aviv ‘bubble', the members of Israel's GLBT community are still struggling for acceptance and equality within broader Israeli society - in both the Jewish and Arab sectors.

As author and gay activist Ilan Sheinfeld wrote this week, while Tel Aviv has for years been considered a safe city for the gay community, the rest of the country was still rather dangerous territory.

A Haaretz public opinion survey seems to validate Sheinfeld's feelings.  Released yesterday, the poll found that more Israelis (46%) regard homosexuality as a perversion (sti'ah in Hebrew) than those who do not (42%) - even in a week that saw the brutal slaying of 2 members of the gay community.

Israel has indeed made great strides in its attitudes toward the GLBT community.  Only a generation ago, former Meretz chair Yossi Sarid reminds us, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin mockingly compared homosexuality to bestiality.  Since that time, Israel has decriminalized homosexuality and lifted the limits on homosexuals serving in the military, while a series of court rulings has strengthened the legal standing of same-sex families.  And this week, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu paid an historic visit to the Gay and Lesbian Association, pledging tolerance (though his office sadly prevented the media from attending the event).

(Click here for the significant legal changes in the status of Israel's GLBT community over the years.)

On the other hand, most gay soldiers report that they are harassed in the army because of their preference; 80% of gay teens report being victims of either verbal, physical or sexual abuse; same-sex marriage is not allowed (nor is any kind of civil marriage); and far too many senior political figures continue to publicly brand homosexuality as a "disease" or plague ("toxic as avian flu"), going so far as to claim that sexual preference can produce disastrous results such as earthquakes.

Tomorrow, a pro-tolerance rally will be held in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv in memory of the victims and as part of the GLBT community's redoubled efforts to overcome the fear and hatred that still lurks in too many parts of Israeli society.  We wish them strength and courage in their continuing efforts for a free and egalitarian Israel.

Ron Skolnik
Executive Director
Meretz USA