From Lesbian Radicalism to Trans-Masculine Innovation: The Queer Place of Jerusalem in Israeli LGBT Geographies (1979-2007)
Keywords:
Queer Jerusalem, Lesbian Radicalism, Transgender History, Drag Kings, Trans Men, Center and Periphery, History from Below
Abstract
Standard narratives of Israeli LGBT history treat Jerusalem as a foil to Tel Aviv. Jerusalem represents religiosity, nationalism and strife whereas Tel Aviv is seen as secular, global and tolerant to divergent sexual and gender expression. Notwithstanding, two influential forces in Israeli LGBT activism had their roots in Jerusalem: The Community of Lesbian Feminists (CLaF) which was active between 1987-2007 and was the longest-lasting statewide lesbian organization that ever existed in the country. The second significant force was the emergence in Jerusalem in the years 2004-2007 of a trans-masculine group, whose performances, posters and camaraderie laid the groundwork to Israeli trans organized advocacy. This article argues that it is not a coincidence that these groupings emerged in Jerusalem. The combination of a heightened political awareness and a pronounced sense of fragility resulted in different LGBT communal configurations than those prevalent in Tel Aviv. This article is based on thirteen interviews with activists and on published and unpublished personal memoirs, flyers and documents.
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Shalom, H. (2005) The Story of CLaF: The Community of Lesbian Feminists. In Frankfort-Nachmias, Ch. Shadmi E. (eds.) Sappho in the Holy Land: Lesbian Existence in Contemporary Israel, Albany: State University of New York Press, 39-64.
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Ziv, A. (2010) Performative politics in Israeli queer anti-occupation activism. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 16,4, 537-556.
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) (2014) The State of Human Rights in Israel. [in Hebrew]
Benford R. and Snow D. (2000) Framing processes and social movements: An overview and assessment. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 611-639.
Blumen, O., and Halevi, S. (2009) Staging peace through a gendered demonstration: Women in Black in Haifa, Israel. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 99(5), 977-985.
Bey H. (1991) T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism. New York: Autonomedia.
Eisner, S. (2012) Love, rage and the occupation: Bisexual politics in Israel/Palestine. Journal of Bisexuality, 12 (1), 80-137.
El-Ad, H. (2008) In Jerusalem we see walls from the march,. In Katz I., Degani Z. and Gross T. (eds.) Where, Here: Identity, Language, Place, Tel Aviv Hakibbutz Hameuchad. [in Hebrew]
Engelstein, G. (2015). i was fed up with dress up, I just wanted to be: Space, identity, and opposition in the life stories of Israeli transgender women. Zmanim 131, 34–51. [in Hebrew].
Engelstein, G. (2016) Once I was One, Now I am Many: Collective Memory in the Life Stories of Transgender Women in Israel, MA Thesis Tel Aviv University. (in Hebrew).
Engelstein, G. and Rachamimov, I. (2019) Crossing borders and demolishing boundaries: The connected history of the Israeli transgender community 1953–1986, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 18:2, 142-159. DOI: 10.1080/14725886.2019.1593696
Ferree, M. and Merrill, D. (2000) Cold Cognition: Thinking about Social Movements in Gendered Frames. Contemporary Sociology. 29, 3, 454-462.
Frankfort-Nachmias, C. and Shadmi, E. (2005) Sappho in the Holy Land: Lesbian Existence in Contemporary Israel, Albany: State University of New York Press.
Freedman, M. (1990) Exile in the Promised Land: A Memoir, Firebrand Books: Ithaca and New York.
Gross, A. (2015) The politics of LGBT rights in Israel and beyond: Nationality, normativity, and queerpolitics. Columbia Human Rights Law Review, 46.2, 81–152.
Haaretz (2007) Gays? Go to Tel Aviv: Shushan the only Gay and Lesbian Bar in Jerusalem is Closing. https://www.haaretz.co.il/gallery/night-life/1.3381365 [in Hebrew]
Harel, A. (1999) The rise and fall of the Israeli gay legal revolution. Columbia Human Rights Law Review, 31, 443–471.
Hartal, G. (2015) Becoming periphery: Israeli LGBT peripheralization. ACME: An international Journal for Critical Geographies, 14,2, 571-597.
Hartal, G. (2016) The politics of holding: Home and LGBT visibility in contested Jerusalem. Gender, Place & Culture. 23(8),1-14. doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2015.1136813
Helman, S. and Rapoport, T. (1997) Women in black: Challenging Israel's gender and socio political order. British Journal of Sociology, 48(4), 682-700.
Hermann, T. (1996) Do they have a chance? Protest and political structure of opportunities in Israel. Israel Studies, 1, 1 144-170.
Jerusalem Post (2015) Jerusalem stabber’s letter week before attack: Stopping gay pride march is a test from god. https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Jerusalem-stabbers-letter-reveals-Stopping-gay-pride-march-is-a-test-from-God-410713 Aug, 6, 2015
Kama, A. (2019) The evolution of LGBT Research in Israel. Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture, 4(2), 173-192.
Lederberg, T (2007) Drag King Panel. Sex Acher: LGBT Studies and Queer Theory Conference 2007 [in Hebrew – by kind permission of the author]
Meyer, D. (2004) Protest and political opportunities. Annual Review of Sociology, 30, 125-145.
Misgav, C. (2015) With the current, against the wind: Constructing spatial activism and radical politics in the Tel-Aviv gay center. ACME: An international Journal for Critical Geographies, 14.4, 1208-1234.
Misgav, C. (2019) Planning, justice and LGBT urban politics in Tel-Aviv: A Queer Dilemma. Documents d'Anàlisi Geogràfica, 65,3, 1-22.
Misgav. C. and Hartal, G. (2019) Queer urban movements in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem: A comparative discussion. In Yacobi, H. and Nassasra, M. (eds.) Routledge Handbook on Middle East Cities, London: Routledge, 57-74.
Misgav, C. and Johnston, L. (2014) Dirty dancing: The (non) fluid geographies of a queer night club in Tel Aviv. Social & Cultural Geography, 15(7), 730-746.
Moore, T. (ed.) (1995) Lesbiot: Israeli lesbians talk about sexuality, feminism and Judaism and their lives. Cassel: London and New York.
Nadan, Y. and Tzfati, M. (in preparation) The Inclusion of Sexual Minorities as a Contextual-Spatial Phenomenon: The Case of Trans Students in Israeli Higher Education.
Nicholls, W. (2009) Place, networks, space: Theorising the geographies of social movements. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 34, 1, 78-93
Rachamimov, I. (2015) Dinners, demonstrations, and disillusionment: Lesbian radicalism in Jerusalem, 1972–1989. Zmanim, 131, 62–71. [in Hebrew].
Rozin, Y. (2014) Becoming: The Drag Kings of Israel, Ph.D Thesis, Bar-Ilan University.
Safran, H. (2005) Alliance and denial: Lesbian protest in Women in Black. In Frankfort-Nachmias, Ch. Shadmi E. (eds.) Sappho in the Holy Land: Lesbian Existence in Contemporary Israel, Albany: State University of New York Press. 191-210
Safran, H. (2006) Don't Want to be Nice: The Struggle for Women Suffrage and the Beginning of the New Feminism in Israel. Tel Aviv: Pardes [in Hebrew].
Safran, H., Hartal, R. and Sasson-Levi, O. (2016) Local lesbian history: Activism, struggles and achievements. In Morgenstern, E. H., Lushinsky, Y. Harel. A. (Eds.) LGBTQ Rights in Israel: Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation and the Law. Srigim: Nevo Publishers,45-79. [in Hebrew].
Savran, A. and Rachamimov, I. (2015) In the Folds of a skirt: The many lives of Karl M. Baer. Zmanim 131, 22–33. [in Hebrew].
Schachter, S. (2005) Lesbians in the Women's Peace Movement. In Frankfort-Nachmias, Ch. Shadmi E. (eds.) Sappho in the Holy Land: Lesbian Existence in Contemporary Israel, Albany: State University of New York Press, 175-190
Schulman, S. (2012) Israel/Palestine and the Queer International. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Shalom, H. (undated) A History of CLaF. unpublished manuscript. [in Hebrew].
Shalom, H. (2005) The Story of CLaF: The Community of Lesbian Feminists. In Frankfort-Nachmias, Ch. Shadmi E. (eds.) Sappho in the Holy Land: Lesbian Existence in Contemporary Israel, Albany: State University of New York Press, 39-64.
Simon, H. (2005) N.O. Body und kein Ende. In Kaplan, M. A. and Meyer, B. (eds) Jüdische Welten: Juden in Deutschland vom 18. Jahrhundert bis in die Gegenwart, ,Kassel: Kassel University Press, 225–230.
Sinai, Y. (2013) A Committee will determine whether I’m a man or a woman? MA thesis, Tel Aviv University [in Hebrew].
Ziv, A. (2005) Toward a history of bars in Israel.” Sappho in the Holy Land: Lesbian Existence and Dilemmas in Contemporary Israel. FeministsIn Frankfort-Nachmias, Ch. Shadmi E. (eds.) Sappho in the Holy Land: Lesbian Existence in Contemporary Israel, Albany: State University of New York Press,105-115.
Ziv, A. (2010) Performative politics in Israeli queer anti-occupation activism. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 16,4, 537-556.
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