Last Night in Jerusalem

We had dinner at a restaurant that was also a museum and used to be the home of Doctor and Anna Ticho. He was an eye doctor and she was an artist. The irony for me was in my basic Hebrew class that I am taking at the JCC on the Upper West Side we had a 1st grade level reading that I had to translate and respond to. I did not even know that they were real people.

We met with Haneen Maikey, Director of Al-Qaws where she talked with us and fielded questions about the gay, lesbian, transgendered, queer Palestinian community in Israel and the Territories. Although not the first Palestinian we met, her focus was more political that we had heard--clearly focused on the occupation and what that does to her people. Currently she is working on issues that are relevant to her community and is no longer particularly interested in having dialogues with Jews/Americans even if we are LGBTQ. Life for her although she has full rights as an Israeli citizen is much like American Blacks before the end of segregation. They had rights but there were many problems, fewer governmental resources and always experiencing prejudice due to fear. I assume sitting there looking at us with all our privilege must not feel good to her. But I don't really know.

Initially Haneen worked with JOH a Jewish gay group but after a few years she formed her own organization. It was like all of us, we get the idea, and then we have to get strong in our own community before we can give energy to the larger community. And it is particularly difficult in Israel with the occupation as well as the fact that Israeli Palestinians do not get an equal share of the Israeli pie.

Now that was a confusing post, I must say.

L'hitraot, chavarim v'chavarot.