New Article: Mor & Davidovich, Same-Sex Attraction, Behavior, and Practices of Jewish Men in Israel

Mor, Zohar, and Udi Davidovich. “Same-Sex Sexual Attraction, Behavior, and Practices of Jewish Men in Israel and the Association with HIV Prevalence.” AIDS Care (early view; online first).

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540121.2016.1146400
 
Abstract

In order to efficiently direct efforts and resources required for the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Israel, it is necessary to define their particular behaviors, estimate their size, and assess the HIV-burden. This cross-sectional study included a sub-sample from a random representative National study performed in Israel, which included Jewish males aged 18–44 who completed online anonymous questionnaires regarding their sexual attraction and practices, commercial sex-work, as well as condom and substances’ use. Additionally, participants were asked to identify themselves as gay, bisexual, or heterosexual. National estimates regarding prevalence of risk-behaviors and HIV-infection among MSM were based on the Statistical Abstract of Israel and the National HIV Registry, respectively. Of the total sample of 997 men, 11.9% reported lifetime male sex encounters, while 4.5% and 3.7% self-identified as gay or bisexual, respectively. The estimated population of self-identified Jewish gays/bisexuals aged 18–44 in Israel was 94,176, and in Tel-Aviv 33,839. HIV prevalence among MSM was estimated at 0.7% in Israel and 1.0% in Tel-Aviv. MSM were more likely to live in Tel-Aviv, had higher levels of education, and were scored higher on several determinants of sexual risk in comparison to those attracted to women, including early sexual debut, greater number of sexual partners, ever paid/been paid for sex, sexually coerced, and substance use. In conclusion, MSM were involved in greater risk behaviors than those who only had female sex partners. Most MSM were living in Tel-Aviv and their estimated HIV prevalence was 1.0%.

 

 

 

New Article: Mor et al, Arab Men Who Have Sex with Men in Israel

Mor, Z., Grayeb, E., and A. Beany. “Arab Men Who Have Sex with Men in Israel: Knowledge, Attitudes and Sexual Practices.” HIV Medicine (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hiv.12301

 

Abstract

Objectives
Arab men who have sex with men (AMSM) are becoming visible in society, and reports of HIV infection and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are emerging. This study aimed to assess the knowledge of AMSM regarding HIV transmission, their attitudes towards condom use and their sexual practices compared with Jewish MSM (JMSM), and to evaluate AMSM–JMSM friendships and sexual encounters.

Methods
Participants in this cross-sectional study completed questionnaires in Arabic or Hebrew. The outcome variable was unprotected anal sex (UAI) in the previous 6 months with a partner(s) whose HIV status was discordant or unknown. AMSM and JMSM indicated if they had friends or sexual encounters from the other ethnic group.

Results
The questionnaires were completed by 342 (16.2%) AMSM and 1775 (83.8%) JMSM in 2012. AMSM were more likely to be religious, ‘closeted’ and married than JMSM; their knowledge regarding HIV transmission was inferior and attitudes towards condom use were less favourable. AMSM reported less alcohol and drug use than JMSM, were more likely to be attracted to and have sex with women, and reported a greater number of sexual partners and more UAI. Being AMSM was a predictive variable for UAI in the multivariate model. While 178 AMSM (52.0%) reported that most of their close friends were JMSM, 251 (73.4%) had only/mostly sexual encounters with JMSM. Among JMSM, 41 (2.3%) reported that their close friends were AMSM, and 308 (17.3%) had only/mostly sexual encounters with AMSM.

Conclusions
The knowledge of AMSM regarding HIV transmission and their attitudes towards condom use were less favourable than those of JMSM, and they performed more UAI. AMSM may benefit from targeted interventions, including reconciling their same-sex attraction in positive terms. Same-sex attraction and gay identity may provide common ground to strengthen Arab–Jew communication in Israel.

 

 

New Article: Hakak, Undesirable Relationships’ between Jewish Women and Arab Men

Hakak, Yohai. “Undesirable Relationships’ between Jewish Women and Arab Men: Representation and Discourse in Contemporary Israel.” Ethnic and Racial Studies (early view; online first).

 

URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2015.1103877

 

Abstract

Demography has been broadly considered as a key aspect of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. On the Jewish side, State intervention to encourage Jewish immigration and Jewish births is well known. Much less known are the efforts to discourage inter-faith relations. These ‘problematic relationships’ between Arab men and Jewish women from low socio-economic backgrounds have become a high priority item in public discussions over the last decade. In this article I will explore the main discursive practices used in this heated debate by those opposing these relationships. ‘Moral panic’ as a theoretical framework will help me analyse the ways in which Jewish women and Arab men who engage in such relations are presented. As I will show, attempts to criminalize and vilify Arab men meet with strong opposition. Presenting Jewish women as weak and passive victims seems as a more successful strategy, especially when done by professionals from the psych-professions.

 

 

 

New Article: Hollander, Zionism, Masculinity, and Sexuality in Reuveni’s ‘Ad Yerushalayim

Hollander, Philip. “Rereading ‘Decadent’ Palestinian Hebrew Literature: The Intersection of Zionism, Masculinity, and Sexuality in Aharon Reuveni’s ‘Ad Yerushalayim.” AJS Review 39.1 (2015): 3-26.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0364009414000622

 

Abstract

This article asserts that politics motivated Aharon Reuveni to employ representations of psychic fragmentation and dysfunctional social institutions to portray Palestinian Jewish life in his novelistic trilogy ‘Ad Yerushalayim. These purportedly decadent representations helped him foreground individual and collective flaws he saw limiting the early twentieth-century Palestinian Jewish community’s development and promote norms he saw as conducive to growth. Thus, as examination of the trilogy’s central male figures demonstrates, Reuveni advances a Zionist masculinity grounded in introspectiveness and ongoing commitment to the achievement of communally shared goals. To further support this Zionist masculine form, the trilogy categorizes men who pursue homosocial ties with others who don’t maintain this masculinity as homosexuals. Thus gender and sexuality are used to coerce male readers into adopting specific behavioral norms. This attention to gender and sexuality’s role in early twentieth-century Palestinian Hebrew fiction offers a way to grasp its long-overlooked political character.

 

New Article: Peled, Female Sexual Subjectivity in Victoria by Sami Michael

Peled, Shimrit. “Construction of Female Sexual Subjectivity in Victoria by Sami Michael in Comparison to other Hebrew and Israeli Writers.” Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature 27 (2014): 233ff (in Hebrew).

 

Abstract

Sexual violence towards women in the Jewish community in Baghdad is central in Sami Michael’s novel, Victoria. Can these violent erotic scenes be interpreted as destabilizing patriarchal mechanisms in Israeli culture? The article discusses this question taking into consideration the debates about pornography in feminist theory and exploring other representations of violence against women in Hebrew and Israeli Literature. Feminists’ views of pornography are divided. From a radical feminist point of view, the production of the subordinate feminine subject in pornography is effective and ultimate. Other feminists claim that pornography can theoretically subvert the mechanism of oppression and its efficacy in exploitation of the female subject because it is by nature repetitious.

Trying to evaluate the impact of the violent erotic scenes in Victoria, this article examines preceding representations of violence against women in Hebrew and Israeli Literature. Portrayal of physical and emotional pain after rape or female desire that does not end in disaster seldom appeared in Hebrew and Israeli literature before Victoria. Although the novel is compliant with the Zionist narrative, Michael fashions a rich and particular female existence in Victoria, centered on feminine sexual subjectivity. I suggest that Michael’s representations of violence against women, and female desire that is nevertheless left intact were accepted by Israeli readers because of the displacement identity in time, space and ethnicity to Jewish Baghdad.

This displacement, which leaves current Israeli culture untouched and therefore does not threaten the reader, allows sexual female consciousness, and sane female sexual subjectivity to enter. However, it is also possible that the feminine confession is forced, that it constructs a femininity, which, though experiencing pain, humiliation, suppuration and abuse, collaborates with the patriarchal mechanism in confessing pleasures that repeat and extend pornographic discourse, making possible the continuation of mechanisms of suppression.

 

 

פלד, שמרית. “הבניית סובייקטיביות מינית נשים ב’ויקטוריה’ לסמי מיכאל בראי פרוזה עברית וישראלית”. מחקרי ירושלים בספרות עברית כז (2014): 233 ואילך.

Cite: Puar, Talking About the Sexual Politics of Israel

Puar, Jasbir. “Citation and Censorship: The Politics of Talking About the Sexual Politics of Israel.” Feminist Legal Studies 19.2 (2011): 133-142.

 

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/klu/fest/2011/00000019/00000002/00009176

 

Abstract

In response to critics’ claims that a discussion of sexuality and nationalism vis-à-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict bears no relation to the author’s previous work, or to such discussions within the US or European contexts, this paper details the complex interconnections between Israeli gay and lesbian rights and the continued oppression of Palestinians. The first section examines existing discourses of what the author has previously called “homonationalism,“ or the process by which certain forms of gay and lesbian sexuality are folded into the national body as the Muslim/Arab Other is cast as perversely queer, within Israel and the diasporas. The operations of homonationalism ensure that no discussion of gay and lesbian rights in Israel is independent from the state’s actions toward Palestine/Palestinians. The second section contains a critique of Israel’s practices of “pinkwashing“ in the US and Europe. In order to redirect focus away from critiques of its repressive actions toward Palestine, Israel has attempted to utilize its relative “gay-friendliness“ as an example of its commitment to Western “democratic“ ideals. Massive public relations campaigns such as “Brand Israel“ work to establish Israel’s reputation within the US and Europe as cosmopolitan, progressive, Westernized and democratic as compared with the backward, repressive, homophobic Islamic nations, which, in turn, serves to solidify Israel’s aggression as a position of the “defense“ of democracy and freedom. The final section looks at the ways in which accusations of “anti-Semitism“ function in academic and activist contexts to suppress critiques of the implicit nationalism within Israeli sexual politics.