Israel is a nation made up of people of different races, religions, nationalities, and sexual orientations and behaviors. In a country only known for the amount of conflict it contains, as seen on CNN, Fox, BBC, and other news agencies worldwide, it comes as little surprise that there remains many internal conflicts within differing groups of people within Israel. In such a nation of contrasting and often opposing ideas, there exists a backlash to people with a more liberal viewpoint and take on sexual behaviors as well as on people with an LGBTQ+ identity. The reasons behind each individual community's backlash is actually less a unique reason, but rather an overarching reaction that stems from religious and cultural/traditional values.
Permissiveness in a society relating to sex can be defined as social norms becoming increasingly liberal in regards to sexual attitudes and behaviors such as dating, sex before marriage, cohabitation, and adultery. In Israel, more secular couples, such as Ashkenazi Jewish couples, are living together before marriage, as well as presumably engaging in pre-marital sex (Rosenthal, 27). In fact, approximately 26% of all Israeli couples are cohabiting before marriage (Rosenthal, 27), although this number varies in different populations and drops drastically in more religiously observant communities. Religious Jews do not tend to hold these liberal values. Pre-marital sex is viewed negatively in more religious communities in Israeli society, ranging from Orthodox Jews to Mizrahi Jews to Arab Muslims and Arab Druze. Orthodox Jews view pre-marital sex as a religious issue and believe that there must not be sex between a heterosexual couple until marriage (Rosenthal, 31). Similarly and conversely, Mizrahi Jews, Jews from the Middle East who tend to be more religiously observant than their European Ashkenazi counterparts, also view sex as a religious issue but tend to view pre-marital sex as an issue more so due to their cultural traditions (Rosenthal, 32-34). This is why, like in many traditional cultures, it's seen as more acceptable for men to be sexually permissive but is not seen as acceptable for women (Rosenthal, 32).
Sexual permissiveness is also against the norms of religious Arab groups like the Arab Muslims and Arab Druze that live within Israeli society. Arab Muslims, for religious reasons, desire women to be virgins until marriage (Rosenthal, 344). Muslim men offer a dowry gift or bride price to the parents of their future wife that is based on her "purity" relating to any rumors that may have spread about her sexual behaviors (Rosenthal, 344). Similarly, for religious reasons, the Druze people forbid marriage and sexual relations with anyone who is also not a Druze, which has lead the community to intermarriage due to its small numbers (Rosenthal, 294). It is interesting that while pre-marital relations in Israel remain stigmatized amongst religious groups that adultery remains fairly commonplace in Israel, even amongst traditional groups (Rosenthal, 335-339). Similarly, romance and the discussion of love and sex is common to tune into via Israeli television, radio, magazines, and newspapers (Rosenthal, 31), even in more religious communities such as the Arabic magazine Lilac. Sexual behaviors are also regulated in regards to LGBTQ+ identities.
According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel is one of the "most inclusive societies in the world" for LGBTQ+ people. In fact, Israel bans workplace discrimination against sexual orientation and LGBTQ+ people have always had the freedom to serve openly in the IDF (Rosenthal, 359). In Tel Aviv, LGBTQ+ people can safely and openly walk in the streets and express their love (Rosenthal, 359). However, similar to more religious groups within Israel having an issue with sexual permissiveness, these same religious groups also overlap with having an issue with LGBTQ+ individuals and an LGBTQ+ identity. Mizrahi Jews tend to not be supportive of members of the LGBTQ+ community (Rosenthal, 359-360), likely due less in part from religious reasons but more so due to traditional cultural values from their respective home countries. These homophobic ideologies do not just come from the Middle East. Many Russian immigrants to Israel, both Jewish and gentile, bring along their homophobic beliefs carried over from former anti-gay laws kept in place by the Soviet Union (Rosenthal, 361). Some groups in Israel hold religious views over tradition in regards to LGBTQ+ identities.
As for religious reasons, the Orthodox community in Israel tends to be against the LGBTQ+ community because they believe it is against Judaism (Rosenthal, 362). This argument stems from two points; the first being the more commonly quoted phrase from Leviticus that some argue prohibits sex between two men. However, I would argue that the disagreement actually stems from the phrase "be fruitful and multiply." Now, Israeli society is heavily marriage family, and child oriented. The Total Fertility Rate is, out of all Western nations, greatest in the State of Israel (Demographic Statistics, page 3). Israel also holds over 1.5 million couples with only 23% not having children (Demographic Statistics, page 3) whereas in the United States, for example, a shocking 61.5% of couples don't have children. I propose that another large reason as to why most Orthodox people don't support LGBTQ+ people is because they believe they cannot have children with their partners and are therefore going against what they see as G-d's will. Nurit, a lesbian Orthodox women living in Israel, says that in the Orthodox community, the number of gay men and women who marry is much higher than in the secular world (Rosenthal, 362). This was also observed in the recent uptick in anti-LGBT funded public billboards in Israeli cities. One of these billboards read "Father and mother equals a family." This is obviously in opposition to LGBTQ+ parents, but also in opposition to single parent households. I think this relates both to the Orthodox community being against the LGBTQ+ community for religious reasons as well as for childbearing reasons because the sign implies there is no way to have children outside of a father and mother pairing. Thus, they would be against the LGBTQ+ community for being unable to have children with their partners. A reporter who tracked down the groups who funded these signs. Unsurprisingly, the funders were Jewish people from the religious right, ultra-Orthodox nationalists, and Jewish people with ties to Chabad, a religious Hasidic movement. For similar religious reasons, many Arab Muslims are against the LGBTQ+ community and individuals in Israel as well, claiming that it goes against Islam (Rosenthal, 364).
Rosenthal is publishing from a book that she wrote titled the Israelis which she did research on for several years into the different populations of people that represent Israel. She works as a journalist, and therefore knows how to interpret and analyze data and can be seen as a reliable source. In her novel, she interviews directly with the particular group of people she is analyzing, getting a first person account. Therefore, this and her citing numerous sources in her bibliography and annotative notes section makes her a reliable source. The Israeli Ministry of foreign affairs is likely slightly prejudiced towards Israel when it makes the bold claim that Israel is one of the most inclusive society is in the world for LGBTQ+ plus people. However, further down their webpage it details a list of LGBTQ+ Rights and organizations guaranteed in Israel, at least showing that the state has some approval of these individuals. The demographic statistics pages come directly from the Israeli census as well as the United States Census, based on facts and figures and likely to be very reliable assuming that people self-reported correctly. Lastly, the article on anti-gay billboards in Israeli cities was published by Ha'aretz newspaper. Ha'artez news tends to form a left-wing type of writing and audience. However since this article was investigating something such as gay rights that the left-wing supports, it is likely that they did their research correctly so as to attack and/or argue against right wing parties that are responsible for this. Therefore taking this into account, as well as the fact that Ha'aretz news is considered a reputable source due to their fact checking and sources cited within their article, it can be concluded that this is also a reliable source.
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