Study of gay Palestinians who fled West Bank finds persecution by both PA and Israel
Times of Israel · LC · trust 51/100
Mahmoud, a Palestinian man from the West Bank, has been living in Israel for the past seven years, since fleeing there after his father caught him being intimate with another man in the family’s home.
In an interview with The Times of Israel, Mahmoud, a pseudonym, recalled how his father beat him and his partner after finding the two together. Sending the partner to his own family, the father then summoned other relatives to beat up Mahmoud as well.
Afterward, Mahmoud said, his family locked him inside the house, starving and beating him while telling him they would eventually kill him.
After a week of captivity, he managed to escape through a hole in the roof while his relatives were asleep. Eventually, he contacted an Israeli woman he knew, who helped him reach Israel.
Like other gay Palestinians, Israel had allowed Mahmoud refuge with a temporary residency permit. However, his permit has not been renewed since September and he faces deportation to the West Bank, an outcome he is now fighting a legal battle to avoid.
“I’m in Israel because I have nowhere else to escape my family,” Mahmoud said. “I hope I never have to return to the West Bank, because if my family finds me, I’ll die.”
For Mahmoud, however, the danger extends beyond encountering his family should he be forced back to the West Bank, where discrimination against gays is both institutionalized and deeply ingrained in society, according to a rare new study on Palestinian members of the LGBTQ community who fled to Israel.
The study, which focuses on individuals born in the West Bank, describes persecution faced under the Palestinian Authority and the hardships they continue to experience after arriving in Israel.
According to researchers who produced the report, conditions for gay Palestinians in Israel have worsened since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, with tighter restrictions on residency permits and growing hostility from segments of Israeli society and state authorities.
The report was commissioned by HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which assists Palestinian LGBTQ asylum seekers, among other types of refugees.
It is the first such study from the group in seven years. Unlike reports from the other non-governmental organizations or the United Nations, the HIAS study relies on first-hand testimonies from those fleeing to Israel and those aiding them.
Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with eight LGBTQ Palestinians who fled the West Bank for Israel, and included accounts from four Israeli activists who have collectively assisted hundreds of gay Palestinians seeking asylum.
Daniella Danial, who authored the study, told The Times of Israel that many in Israel do not recognize the systemic nature of homophobia in the West Bank, viewing those who flee to Israel as doing so for increased comfort rather than threats to their life.
“Israel strongly resists acknowledging that there is persecution in the Palestinian territories,” she said. “Israel says, ‘They come here to live a liberal lifestyle,’ as if it’s like someone moving from Bnei Brak to Tel Aviv. It acknowledges that there are individual cases [of danger], but there needs to be recognition that there is a broader problem.”
Danial, an Israeli citizen who identifies as Palestinian, argued that Israel cannot avoid addressing that reality.
“I’ve worked with many vulnerable populations,” she said. “In my view, this is the most marginalized group within Israel’s borders.”
Although Palestinian Authority law does not criminalize same-sex relations, a rare statement issued in 2019 highlighted the systematic persecution of LGBTQ people.
The statement, issued by the Palestinian police, announced a ban on all organized activities and gatherings organized by Al Qaws (“The Rainbow” in Arabic), a Palestinian LGBTQ advocacy group founded roughly a decade earlier that focused on promoting tolerance through online outreach. Those who took part in the groups’ events would be arrested, police said.
The police later deleted the statement from its official platforms, a move the study says reflected an attempt by the PA to avoid projecting an image of intolerance to Western audiences.
Al Qaws has significantly curtailed public activities since then, though it continues to publish educational content on social media.
In 2022, the plight of gay Palestinians briefly drew international attention after the brutal beheading of a West Bank man who had been living under asylum in Israel but returned to the territory under unclear circumstances.
Palestinian police opened an investigation at the time but did not determine that the killing was motivated by homophobia, and the perpetrator has never been arrested.
The new study argues that although the PA has largely remained silent on the issue since 2019, severe persecution of LGBTQ Palestinians — both within their families and by public institutions — has continued, in some cases escalating to attempted murder.
Manar, a 25-year-old lesbian from a West Bank village, recalled that “when my father discovered I was attracted to women after searching my phone and finding intimate messages, he started beating me all the time.”
As with all interviewees cited in the report, her identifying details have been altered for her protection.
Manar said her family forced her into marriage with a man following her father’s discovery.
Ahead of the wedding, Manar filed a complaint with PA officials over her father’s violence, she said. Police arrested her father, but he was released without charges or even a warning after investigators learned that his actions stemmed from his daughter’s sexual orientation, she claimed.
The PA did not respond to a request for comment on Manar’s claims or regarding the wider allegation of systematic persecution of gays.
Yaman, a 23-year-old gay man from Nablus, described how his family failed to protect him after he was abducted and beaten because of his sexual orientation.
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