David Sheen | Shiri Eisner: USA vs. Israel on Queers @DavidSheenX | Uploaded June 2017 | Updated October 2024, 11 minutes ago.
part 1 of a 3-part interview with author & activist Shiri Eisner

"I think it's really complex because there's this whole orientalist vision of Israel as backward and inherently LGBT-phobic. People automatically assume, especially Americans, that have really soaked up this sort of ideology of the US as the most liberal and tolerant place in the world ever. They always assume that Israel is necessarily more LGBT-phobic than the US, but I actually think the opposite. I mean, the cases of violence and murder, and attacks, queer homelessness, which is huge in the US, I don't think we can even compare to that. And I'm not saying there aren't any problems, there are a lot of problems, but I do think this sort of dichotomous view of “West vs. East”, is a really problematic background to this entire discussion because what Israel, and the Israeli government, is trying to do is to turn this view over and say “No, no, you think we're backward and homophobic and we ride on camels. But no, we're actually as liberal as you, as tolerant as you.” And that's bullshit. You might say, we're as LGBT-phobic as you, we're as patriarchal as you. So, like, I wouldn't want to exclude the US from accountability to LGBT- phobia while talking about LGBT-phobia in Israel."