A rare gathering
of openly gay Arab activists is slated to be held in
Israel this month, drawing the ire of religious
conservatives. Headlined "Home and Exile," the March
28 meeting is meant to spark discussion of
homosexuality among Israel's 1 million Arab citizens, said
Roula Deeb, a prominent Arab feminist and one of the
scheduled speakers.
The conference is
being organized by Aswat, an Arab lesbian group based
in Haifa, a coastal city home to both Jews and Arabs.
Around 100 to 150
people are expected to show up, Deeb said. With
homosexuality a taboo topic in much of the Arab world, the
meeting is important simply because it is taking
place.
Israel is
generally tolerant of homosexuality, and the country's
secular metropolis, Tel Aviv, is home to a thriving
gay community. But Israel's Arabs, who make up 20% of
the population, live mostly in separate communities
where homosexuality is still considered out of bounds.
When news of the
conference, which was advertised on Aswat's Web site,
reached the Islamic Movement in Israel, it sparked a war of
words between Arab liberals and Muslim conservatives.
"Lesbians...need
treatment--they don't need to spread their strange
ideas in the Arab community," said Mohammed Zbidat, a
spokesman for the Islamic Movement, a conservative
force that has grown increasingly influential in the
Arab Israeli community in recent years.
Homosexuality is
strictly forbidden by Islam, and an earlier statement
issued by the Movement described it as a "cancer" in the
Arab community.
The conference
draws its supporters mostly from the ranks of secular and
educated Arabs. It is sponsored by two Haifa cafes popular
among Arab intellectuals and artists, and an Arab
women's rap group is scheduled to perform.
"This is a
political issue," said Raja Zaatry, a journalist at
the left-leaning Ittihad (Unity) newspaper, who
condemned the Islamic Movement's stance in an editorial last
week.
"Today, they are
attacking gays and women. Tomorrow, who else?" he said
in an interview. "We shouldn't compromise. We have to
challenge this fundamentalist stream in our society."
In Lebanon,
perhaps the Arab world's most liberal state, gay
people have held news conferences and run a magazine
called Barra, meaning "out," the only
publication of its kind. But nearly everywhere in the Arab
world, individuals face persecution if they come out
openly.
Still, violence
against participants in the Haifa conference is not
expected. "We've called on people to fight this in all legal
means. We don't condone violence," said the Islamic
Movement's Zbidat.
The conference's
organizers did not want to respond to the controversy.
"We are focusing all our energies on the conference right
now," a spokeswoman said. (Diaa Hadid, AP)