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March 27, 2009
Gay progress in Israel
Tel Aviv politician speaks of diversity at UBC.
PAT JOHNSON
Four years ago, Etai Pinkas, his partner, and three other gay Israeli couples were married at Toronto city hall. They returned to Israel, applied for the recognition of their marriages and, after a battle that went to that country's Supreme Court, ensured that gay marriages performed in other countries are recognized as legal in Israel.
Last week – on the anniversary of their Canadian marriages – Pinkas was back in Canada, but not to celebrate his nuptials; his husband was at home in Israel. Pinkas was speaking to Hillel students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) about gay rights in Israel.
Pinkas, who last November finished a five-year term on Tel Aviv city council, completed a week-long cross-Canada tour of university campuses last Friday. The visit was arranged by Vancouver Hillel and National Jewish Campus Life to help counter the depiction of Israel during the so-called "Israel Apartheid Week," which anti-Israel extremists held during the first week of March. Hillel students turned the anti-Israel week into an opportunity to blanket the campus in pro-Israel messaging and Pinkas' visit, while not during "apartheid" week, was part of Hillel's efforts to depict Israel realistically on campus.
Before entering politics, Pinkas was the leader of Israel's national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) rights organization, the Agudah.
In his presentation, he described Israel's advance from the criminalization of homosexuality to full, legalized equality, which has taken a path very similar to the Canadian experience. Landmark court cases have marked the march of progress, including one just two days before Pinkas spoke at UBC. An Israeli couple was granted the right to adopt a son who was not the biological offspring of either partner, a precedent-setting case that opens the door to full adoption rights for GLBT couples. Until now, gay couples had been able to adopt only when one of the partners was a biological parent.
Although Israel's sodomy laws were not repealed until the 1980s, the attorney general in the 1950s ordered that the laws not be enforced. This was not the case in the army, however, where research done by Pinkas' professor discovered 50 cases of imprisonment for homosexuality. In the military reforms that followed the 1973 Yom Kippur War, gays and lesbians were officially permitted into the armed forces.
The road to the recognition of foreign gay marriages was a rocky one. Pinkas, his partner and three other gay couples had their initial requests for the legal recognition of their marriages refused by Israel's Ministry for Internal Affairs.
Taking the matter to the Supreme Court, a precedent-making decision – by a 12-to-one margin – determined that the marriages were valid and should be registered, legalizing gay marriages from foreign countries. Pinkas hopes that GLBT Israelis will someday be able to marry without leaving the country, but he is neither deeply concerned nor particularly outraged, given that many Israelis are forced to marry outside the country and return to apply for recognition. Since marriage in Israel is governed by the religious courts, people of different religions have similar bureaucratic hoops to jump as do gay couples.
"It's not only a gay problem," said Pinkas. "We have a problem, but we share it with others.... Just let me suffer like anyone else."
Today, gays and lesbians in Israel can adopt and lesbians are fully funded for in-vitro fertilization. Because there are very few babies available for adoption in Israel, most of these children are adopted abroad.
"When they come back, they can register their kids and that's it," said Pinkas, who is proud of having convinced his council colleagues to create and fund a GLBT community centre.
Answering questions from the audience, Pinkas explained how the catastrophic situation for gay Palestinians was alleviated by his national organization, but how political developments have made things worse for gay Palestinians.
"Their situation is very bad," he said. "Their families, in some cases, are trying to kill them. The police, in some cases, are not much better."
For gay Palestinians, getting into Israel at all now is difficult, making applications for refugee status nearly impossible.
All is not rainbows in Israel, of course. There were anti-gay riots in the ultra-Orthodox community of Mea Shearim at one point – "they're not our biggest fans," said Pinkas – but the publicity reflected badly on the religious community.
Pinkas said the religious communities are sorry for other reasons that they entered the fray: their own children are asking what gays and lesbians are and will perhaps begin to question the position of the older generations.
"I don't expect them to change their minds," he said of the religious communities. "The Bible says whatever it says, but it's a secular country. They wouldn't imagine stating that someone who drives on Shabbat should be executed, so what's the big deal with us?"
Winding up his presentation on LGBT rights in Israel, Pinkas left on a high note.
"We can sum it up: there is tremendous progress," he said.
Pat Johnson is, among other things, managing director, programs and communications, for the Vancouver Hillel Foundation.
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