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In a move labelled “lifesaving”, Israel’s Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry has announced that Israel will open a shelter designated for LGBT+ Israeli Arab youth, the first of its kind in the country, and also open two housing centres for LGBT+ Israeli Arab adults in Haifa.
Up until now LGBT+ Arab youth, who have been forced to flee their homes due to their sexual orientation and therefore needed emergency housing, had to go to shelters run by Jewish Israelis; many of which do not have Arabic-speaking social workers or staff.
Or Keshet, the Director of Government Relations at an Israeli LGBT+ non-profit called The Aguda, said that many “Arab-Israelis feel out of place at regular shelters due to “cultural and linguistic barriers”.
A spokesperson for the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry, emphasised that the goal of the new shelters is to combat this by ensuring that Arab Israeli youth “feel comfortable having youth guides speaking their language”. The spokesperson said that it would open within roughly six months, and will be established in an area with a large Arab population. It will be run in Arabic and will recognise the sector’s unique socio-cultural sensitivities.
Knesset Member, Ibtisam Mara’ana (Labor) pushed for the youth shelter and identifies as the “first and only” Arab Knesset member to embrace and support the LGBT+ community. She said that she chose to do so after speaking to members of the LGBT+ Arab community and asking them where they felt their needs were not being met. She told The Media Line that “the unequivocal answer that I received was that there is a lack of a framework for emergency shelter, as well as transitional living centres for LGBT minors and youth from the Arab sector”.
Mara’ana hopes that “establishment of this centre will break the taboo in Arab society with regard to the LGBT+ community, provide a precise response for young women and men in distress, and also help the Arab LGBT+ community gain the recognition and legitimacy that it deserves”.
Keshet explained that many LGBT+ Israeli Arabs are shunned by their communities and some suffer physical abuse by their families when they come out. He went onto to explain that the idea for opening Arab youth shelters stemmed from a 2019 incident outside of a gay youth hostel in Tel Aviv where a 16-year-old boy from the Arab Israeli town was stabbed and beaten by his brothers. He dismissed homophobic comments by other Arab members of the Knesset by saying “these are people that were thrown out of their homes and who experienced sexual, physical and verbal abuse from their families, the goal is to provide them with a warm place, a bed, food and basic human care. At the end of the day, we’re talking about something that can save lives”.
