The Plight of Gays and Lesbians in the Middle East

by Bill Levinson Monday, Mar. 20, 2006 at 6:50 PM

Oppression, physical violence, and even murder of gay people is very common in Middle Eastern countries with violently homophobic cultures.

Under the rule of the Palestinian Authority, gays are treated according to fundamentalist Biblical laws that say that men who lie with men or women with women shall be put to death. The reader can verify this independently by doing a Google search for "Palestinian" and "gays."
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&as_qdr=all&q=palestinian+gays&btnG=Search

The Yale Herald (November 2004) reports,

"The Palestinian Authority subsequently arrested Adam three times for his sexual orientation, torturing and humiliating him. It is illegal to be gay in the Palestinian Authority, Eli said, and the police actually employ special undercover agents that seek out gay men, whom the police then torture, kill, or force to work as prostitutes. It is not surprising, Eli said, that he and Adam decided to flee to Israel, the only place where they would not be persecuted for their sexuality." http://www.yaleherald.com/article.php?Article=3749


"Gay Palestinians Suffer under Arafat" says in part,

"It is not widely known that, along with its war against Israel, the Palestinian Authority is conducting a vicious campaign against its own homosexual population. The New Republic, in its Aug. 19 issue, exposed hideous human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority, which employs special police squads to capture men who have sex with each other. The lucky ones are forced to stand in sewage water up to their necks or lie in dark cells infested with insects; others are simply starved to death." http://www.sodomylaws.org/world/israel/isnews004.htm

Gay Man Criticizes Palestinian Society (Alex Tehranian, Special to The Hoya Friday, October 22, 2004; Page A1):

"A Palestinian man described the challenges of living as a homosexual in what he deemed an oppressive society last Tuesday in New South. …He said he was unwilling to reveal his last name or hometown for fear of being discovered by the Palestinian Authority." http://www.thehoya.com/news/102204/news6.cfm


Palestinian Gays Seek Safety in Israel:

"For these gay men, life in the seedy parts of central Israel is far better than the virtual death sentences they fled in the West Bank and Gaza Strip." "Torture by Palestinian Authority security services or vigilante attacks by relatives is a fate suffered by countless gays in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where sodomy carries a jail term of three to 10 years." "Islam prescribes capital punishment for homosexual activity." http://www.sodomylaws.org/world/israel/isnews005.htm