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Lesbian group in Israel struggles to survive, leaders say in S.F.

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/18206/full/18206/lesbian-group-in-israel-struggles-to-survive-leaders-say-in-s-f/ Lesbian group in Israel struggles to survive, leaders say in S.F. Friday, August 2, 2002 | by ALEXANDRA J. WALL Karen Guterman was 17 when she came out to her parents. The news that their daughter was a lesbian did not go over well; they kicked her out of the house. The Israeli moved in with her partner and had to drop out of high school to support herself. She didn't complete high school until she finished the army. There was no place she could turn to for emotional support. That was then, this is now. Were Guterman, now 33, grappling with her sexual identity today, there would be an organization she could turn to. And she is its executive director. But like all human rights organizations in Israel right now, it is struggling to survive. Donations from abroad have all but dried up to the organization, which has a yearly budget of half a million dollars. So Guterman came to San Francisco to seek support of another nature: the financial kind. Not only is CLAF, Community of Feminist Lesbians (e-mail: <a href="mailto:claf@gay.org.il">claf@gay.org.il</a>), the only lesbian organization in Israel, but it's the only one in the Middle East. Founded in 1987, CLAF was a radical lesbian feminist organization whose mission was primarily political: women working to advance rights for gays and lesbians in Israel. In the last few years though, the group has become more social as well. "I had a different vision," said Guterman, who believed the group should also provide a home for Israeli lesbians. Going by her own experience, she thought, "I wanted CLAF to be a place where a woman can call us anytime, and a political group doesn't do that." Based in Tel Aviv, CLAF functions out of a community center that also houses an archive and holds activities. There are 2,000 members, the largest membership of any gay or lesbian group in Israel. And if lesbians aren't marginalized enough in Israel, Guterman and Daniella Ben-Haym, who at 23 is CLAF's project manager, gave examples of women served by CLAF who are marginalized even further because of their ethnicity or origin: the Russian emigres and other foreigners, the Arabs, the Druze. In one highly publicized case, two Druze women ran away from their village, afraid of the ostracism they would face, and left a note. CLAF is hiding them and negotiating with Canada to try to gain them asylum there. Providing support for Arab women has been a challenge, since coming out can sometimes be a life or death matter. CLAF tried to put an advertisement in the Arab newspapers in Israel, saying something to the effect of "Dear woman, do you need someone to talk to?" It did not mention the word "lesbian" and went into no further detail, but it was rejected at every newspaper. When an Arab lesbian does find her way to CLAF, "we are not coming from 'We know what's good for you,'" said Ben-Haym. "They need to tell us what they need, and we give it to them." CLAF is suffering now not only because of the battered Israeli economy, but also because it's not receiving the kind of support it enjoyed previously. All human rights organizations in Israel are suffering, said Ben-Haym. And it cannot even hold events that would generate income because people don't want to leave their homes. "If we could do a minimum of activities, we could still live and survive, but why make activities? For whom?" asked Guterman. A party for women used to bring around 1,000; now it would only bring 100. "It's very sad that Israel had to reach this situation," she said. "Our prime minister doesn't listen to those voices crying out for change. Human rights and our prime minister don't go together." The women of CLAF said that hamatzav, as "the situation" is called in Israel, has erased all the advancements they feel they've made in the past few years. "We're regressing in everything." Before CLAF's current financial crisis, it was able to accomplish a variety of things that are now in jeopardy. Ben-Haym continues to meet with a group of young girls, pre-army, who are struggling with their sexuality. Both she and Guterman go to schools and give workshops to educators, social workers and psychologists. CLAF hasn't totally dropped its political agenda however. Guterman, whose partner was artifically inseminated, has a 5-month old daughter, and she hopes to be able to adopt her someday. But as long as the religious parties retain the influence they have now, she knows there is no way that will happen. Just as the Israeli government has occupied the West Bank and Gaza, Guterman said, the religious establishment has occupied the lives of gay and lesbian Israelis. With Ben-Haym noting that one Shas minister said that all gays should be hospitalized, Guterman said, "We're afraid that one day, in 10 years, we'll wake up and have a religious prime minister. Then there will be no place for us."

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