On Being Queer and Palestinian in East Jerusalem

Under international law, Jerusalem is divided between East and West, and the former is where the majority of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem live (about 314,000 people). Palestinians in Jerusalem live under Israeli control, without access to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. The peace scholar Sa’ed Atshan describes this special status of East Jerusalem, which leads its residents to develop their own expressions of social and cultural life. At the same time he will share ethnographic insights into the lives of queer Palestinians in the city, highlighting the heterogeneity of their voices and experiences in the region.

Sa’ed Atshan is an LGBT Palestinian Quaker and Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College