Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Pinkwashing, Israel and the gay debate

Many on the self-proclaimed pro-Palestinian side decry Israel's attempts to publicise its tolerant and diverse society, to show the world how they can comfortably encompass a thriving gay scene in Tel Aviv alongside many other contrasting modes of living such as Christian monasteries, ultra-Orthodox yeshivas, socialist Zionist collective farms / kibbutzes and ordinary secular Jewish and Arab social groupings.

It is absolutely true to say that Israel has a thriving gay community in Tel Aviv and I've personally found Israeli guys to be very open-minded indeed. I also found something particularly hot about Israeli men is their middle Eastern origin and semitic good looks (for exampe, this Israeli guy http://40.media.tumblr.com/6bb0b30ea443d8e13d101c5cb6490226/tumblr_nkc3uyAslF1tdtanuo1_1280.png). I also became very close with an Iraqi Jewish Israeli guy whose family was originally from Baghdad but they were persecuted and expelled in the late 1940s (and obviously they can never return, both because Jews would be slaughtered in Iraq and also because of his sexuality).

Many on the "pro-Palestine" side claim that it is wrong for Israel to point out that it is the safest and friendliest place in the Middle East for LGBT people. However, I would say that if the Palestinians and other Middle Eastern countries don't want to be embarrassed in comparison to Israel with their treatment of gay people, maybe the answer is to treat gay people better and not discriminate against them rather than complain that it's unfair for Israel to draw attention to the freedoms the LGBT community in Israel enjoys?

Israel is by no means perfect in terms of LGBT life. There is still some discrimination, they cannot marry. But overall if you are a young Israeli guy who likes other guys, you can move to Tel Aviv and meet other gay guys, live your life, get into a relationship, be open about your sexuality at work. This compares to the awful fate of gay men in Syria (hurled from the top of a building) or Iraq (handcuffed, bullet in the back of the head and dumped on the outskirts of torn) or the Palestinian territories (physically attacked, maybe even murdered by your own family in an "honour killing" :wink:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

MatureStudent36

My favourite triangle is the isosceles triangle.

Reply 2

Mary562

It's a vicious circle. :yes:

Reply 3

username1854431

Original post by MatureStudent36

My favourite triangle is the isosceles triangle.

Original post by steve42rm

I'm particularly fond of the obtuse triangle. I actually feel sorry for it looking so clumsy and out of place.

Wow you guys are all anti-social, backward-thinking, sexist, homophobic, trans-phobic, moronic fascists.
It's the equilateral triangle that you should love, because of EQUALITY.

Come on guys, it's 2015