Gender Across Borders

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Yesterday, Helen Thomas retired from her position as a columnist for Hearst Newspapers and, consequently, as a member of the White House Press Corps. Her announcement was sudden and unexpected, and it appears to be a direct result of a remark she made in May regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When asked by Rabbi David Nesenoff if she had any comments about Israel, Thomas responded, “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. …Remember, there people are occupied. And it’s their land. It’s not German. It’s not Poland.” When asked where Israeli citizens should go, Thomas continued, “They can go home [to] Poland…Germany…and America. And everywhere else.” She has since issued an apology for her words, explaining that “They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance.”

Thomas’ resignation has stirred up a mix of conflicting emotions and thoughts. On one hand, it is sad to see her long and historic career end so abruptly, particularly given the dearth of women remaining in the White House Press Corps. On the other hand, it is disheartening that Thomas chose to use her platform as a respected public figure to suggest that countries historically known for their anti-Semitic actions would be a better home for Israeli Jews than the country that has been their home for the last six decades. At 89 years old, perhaps Thomas was nearing voluntary retirement anyway — but this was not the right way for her to go.

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Women of the Wall is a group of Jewish women who meet at the Western Wall the start of each Hebrew month to pray and read from the Torah. WOW’s actions are a direct protest against a law barring women from praying out loud at the Wall. The controversial actions of these women have resulted in confrontations in the past, and yesterday, at the group’s monthly gathering, Haredi men and women harassed the participants by calling them Nazis.

From The Jerusalem Post:

The group arrived at the site around 7 on Monday morning to take part in Rosh Chodesh celebrations for the new Jewish month of Adar. After about 30 minutes, however, worshipers on the men’s side of the Western Wall’s prayer section began verbally attacking group members, objecting to their singing and their wearing of tallitot prayer shawls, a spokeswoman for Women of the Wall (WOW) told The Jerusalem Post.

“All of a sudden this group of men got really riled up and started yelling ‘Nazis!’ and so on,” said WOW’s Public Relations Coordinator Michelle Handelman, who was at the Western Wall when the ruckus began.

“The police, who were standing by to protect WOW members, moved in and blocked off the area. However, a group of some 10 haredi women then moved in and began antagonizing the group as well,” said Handelman.

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This past week has not been a pleasant one for the international LGBT community. Two separate attacks occurred during the 2009 World Outgames, held last week in Copenhagen — three men were beaten outside of Copenhagen’s town hall after the opening night ceremony, and bombs were thrown into Osterbro Stadium at the start of a track event on Tuesday. And on Saturday, an unidentified assailant killed two people and injured at least 15 more outside of a community center for LGBT youth in Tel Aviv. This most recent attack, in particular, has incited outrage across the globe — Towleroad has a list of vigils planned in the U.S. and abroad in memory of the shooting’s victims.

All three of these tragic events have received a fair amount of media attention, which is a step in the right direction — these hate crimes deserve all of the attention they’ve received, and then some. But little, if any, of the media coverage is addressing the larger issue at hand: these incidents are symptomatic of a recent rise in anti-LGBT violence around the world.

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Whatever the political situation, whatever the state of their homeland, people need food when they’re hungry, medicine when they’re sick, and shelter when they’re tired or the weather turns bads. To deny people these necessities because others who share their homeland or origin have attacked you or may attack you is something the vast majority of us know to be wrong.

This is, however, exactly what the Israeli government is doing to the people of Gaza. Read the rest of this entry →