PODCAST: Being Palestinian during Israeli Pride Week

By +972 Magazine May 31, 2019 | Edit

For many queer Palestinians in Israel, celebrating their gender identities while standing up for Palestinian rights is a balancing act — especially during Pride Week.

Israelis take part in the annual pride parade in Tel Aviv, June 12, 2015. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Every year, tens of thousands of tourists descend on Tel Aviv in mid-June for the annual Pride Week festivities, which celebrate Israel’s LGTBQ community with all-night parties, concerts, and a giant march across the city center.

For LGBTQ Palestinians living in Israel, however, Pride Week is far more complicated. For many, participating in Pride means actively taking part in Israel’s “pinkwashing” attempts by portraying itself to the world as a pluralistic safe haven for queer people to cover up its human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel likes to celebrate how liberal it is while violating the basic human rights of Palestinians, says journalist Zizo Abul Hawa, a gay Palestinian living in Tel Aviv. “You cannot just go around showing off your human rights while taking basic human rights from millions of people just half an hour from Tel Aviv.”

Caught in between wanting to celebrate their sexual and gender identities on the one hand and the Palestinian struggle on the other, Pride Week brings into focus the balancing act that queer Palestinians often face.

Listen here: iTunes/Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify

“My LGBT identity is a very big part of my identity, but right now for the Palestinian people… basic human rights is more important than getting married, or equality, or surrogacy for gay couples,” says Abul Hawa.

Zizo Abul Hawa.

“I know a lot of gay Palestinians who wait for pride like a child waits for Christmas,” says Abul Hawa, “and I can understand that, I can understand putting your political agenda aside just to enjoy life a little bit.” He adds: “It can be a little bit hypocritical, taking part of it, but things are complicated, and you get, sometimes, to be hypocritical.”

Subscribe to The +972 Podcast: iTunes/Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify

V1 Journalism against apartheid

Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

Make a Donation

End of article module for Members

TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

Make a Donation

End of article module for Registered users

Make a Donation