Copyright

Wala AlQaisiya; Ghaith Hilal; Haneen Maikey

Published On

2023-06-26

Page Range

pp. 103–122

Language

  • English

Print Length

20 pages

Media

Illustrations1

7. Dismantling the Image of the Palestinian Homosexual: Exploring the Role of Alqaws

  • Wala AlQaisiya (author)
  • Ghaith Hilal (author)
  • Haneen Maikey (author)
Chapter of: For Palestine: Essays from the Tom Hurndall Memorial Lecture Group(pp. 103–122)
The Zionist colonization of Palestine holds at its premise racial, sexual, and gendered discourses through which colonial power is exercised. It is through the production and creation of certain types of knowledge and specific domains of truth that the colonial regime perpetuates and reinforces its mechanisms and modes of governments on the colonizers, making them internalize a certain conduct. This paper seeks to understand the means through which the Zionist colonial regime influences the production of specific objects of knowledge: sexuality and the image of the homosexual in Palestine. It wants to pinpoint the ways through which its power hinges on the bodies and desires of the colonized and, specifically, how the image of homosexuals came to be perceived and understood in determined ways within the Palestinian context and throughout its recent history.

Contributors

Wala AlQaisiya

(author)

Wala AlQaisiya was a doctoral student at Durham University, Department of Human Geography, and is currently a Teaching Fellow at LSE, London. Their research raises the question on meanings of queer(ying) spaces within the current Palestinian context and their relevance in relation to de-colonial geographies and imaginaries.

Ghaith Hilal

(author)

Ghaith Hilal is an architect, designer, and Palestinian queer activist, based in Ramallah, Palestine. Ghaith has been an active member of alQaws’ West Bank leadership since 2007, and a board member since 2009, during which he wrote articles on queer organising in Palestine in both Arabic and English.

Haneen Maikey

(author)

Haneen Maikey, who gave the seventh Hurndall Memorial Lecture in 2011, was a Palestinian queer community organiser, co-founder and the executive director of alQaws. Haneen is author of ‘The History and Contemporary State of Palestinian Sexual Liberation Struggle’ (in The Case for Sanctions Against Israel, ed. Lim A., 2012); along with different articles about queer organising in Palestine and Pinkwashing.