RAMALLAH — Kareem fled from Ramallah to Israel in April 2024 after his father threatened to kill him upon learning he was gay, saying he would “rest a bullet between my eyes.” He crossed into Israel at the Sha’ar Ephraim crossing and secured a welfare permit with assistance from pro bono lawyers at HIAS, a Jewish humanitarian organization that supports asylum-seekers in Israel.
Israeli authorities at the crossing repeatedly questioned Kareem about his friends and family in the West Bank and implied he could receive easier permit approval in exchange for providing intelligence. Israel stopped issuing permits for most West Bank Palestinians after October 7, 2023, citing “security concerns.” In October 2024, six months after arriving in Israel, Kareem received a notification that his permit had been invalidated. “I was so confused. They had just given me the permit, so why would they take it away?” Kareem said.
Kareem’s attorney, Tamir Blank, said Israeli security bodies exploit the vulnerability of Palestinian asylum-seekers by pressuring them for cooperation, promising not to deport or jail them. His remarks follow the Tel Aviv Court for Administrative Affairs’ March 2024 ruling that LGBTQ+ Palestinians can petition for asylum in Israel.
Before leaving the West Bank, Kareem was active in a queer activist network in Ramallah that hosted weekly community meetings. He worked in his cousin’s welding shop in the Jalazone refugee camp, where he endured years of sexual and physical abuse from his cousins due to his feminine presentation. After his father confronted him about his sexuality, Kareem’s father sent his cousins to stalk him and his friends.
Kareem’s family is conservative and politically connected; his father works for the Palestinian Authority, and his grandfather was involved with the Palestine Liberation Organization before the 1993 Oslo Accords. Upon arriving in Israel, Kareem stayed at HaGag HaVarod, an emergency LGBTQ+ youth shelter in Tel Aviv known as “The Pink Roof” in Hebrew.