ISRAEL: An Israeli candidate makes a bid to become the Middle East's first openly gay mayor, in famously liberal Tel Aviv

Record ID: 278000

  • Title: ISRAEL: An Israeli candidate makes a bid to become the Middle East's first openly gay mayor, in famously liberal Tel Aviv
  • Date: 17th October 2013
  • Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (OCTOBER 15, 2013) (REUTERS) SEASIDE PROMENADE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE STROLLING PEOPLE WALKING ON BEACH PEOPLE ON SEGWAYS ON MAIN AVENUE PEOPLE SITTING IN CAFE PEDESTRIANS MUNICIPAL BUILDING TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (RECENT - SEPTEMBER 29, 2013) (REUTERS) CANDIDATE FOR TEL AVIV MAYOR NITZAN HOROWITZ SITTING (SOUNDBITE) (English) CANDIDATE FOR TEL AVIV MAYOR, NITZAN
  • Embargoed: 1st November 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVAAMEH266X7688T8A4IB1AQVLS6
  • Story Text: In a region better known for its religious and social conservatism, Tel Aviv has been dubbed the "city that never sleeps".
    With a homosexual population of 410,000, it was also ranked in a poll by Gaycities.com last year as a top gay destination.
    It is not surprising then that one of its mayoral candidates, Nitzan Horowitz, is making a bid to become the first openly gay mayor in the Middle East.
    "I'm going to be not only the first gay mayor here in Israel, but the first gay mayor of the entire Middle East. This is very exciting," Horowitz told Reuters.
    "It's also very challenging, because this is a country, this is an area with a lot of problems concerning the gay community - discrimination, even violence, all sorts of persecutions and intimidations, threats, that even personally I experienced," he said.
    Nitzan Horowitz is hoping his bid to run Israel's famously liberal city of Tel Aviv will help homosexuals across a region where they are widely frowned upon.
    A former television journalist who as a lawmaker has largely championed social issues and advocated for African migrants who have flocked to Tel Aviv, the 48-year-old legislator says discrimination against gays in the city lingers on, despite its reputation as a liberal bastion.
    Just last month, Horowitz said, a landlord cited a party colleague's gay lifestyle in refusing to rent him an apartment.
    The candidate is pushing for greater awareness of gay issues, especially in schools, where he makes frequent visits.
    "Most of the schools in Israel are blocked to the gay community. All the NGOs of the gay community are not allowed in the schools. And most of the kids are not exposed to any explanation or lecture, or anything regarding the gay community, so there is lack of tolerance," he said.
    Israel's military made inroads decades ago by conscripting gay men and women alongside other 18-year-olds for mandatory service.
    And even the holy city of Jerusalem, with a large ultra-Orthodox Jewish population, holds an annual gay pride parade.
    But the gay community hits a roadblock when it comes to the issue of marriage.
    Gay marriage - and civil ceremonies in general - that take place in Israel are not recognised by the authorities. Horowitz, who has lived with his partner for more than a decade, wants that to change.
    Despite his advocacy for gay issues, Horowitz is adamant that they are not his core platform. Rather, he says he is seeking to improve public services including education, transport and housing in a city where costs have soared in recent years.
    On Wednesday (October 16), he joined residents demonstrating to demand higher compensation for being displaced due to construction of a skyscraper.
    "I'm gay, I'm part of the gay community, but the gay agenda is not my main agenda. I'm going to be mayor for everybody and so my three major issues are first of all, public education, public housing and public transportation. I'm running on a public based agenda," Horowitz said.
    The left-wing parliamentarian is not predicted to defeat the incumbent, the well-established ex-fighter pilot Ron Huldai, in an Oct. 22 municipal vote.
    But Horowitz remains upbeat, pointing to an opinion poll his dovish Meretz party commissioned last month that gave Huldai only a five-point lead. A survey in the Maariv newspaper last week predicted a Huldai victory, but found 46 percent of voters were still undecided.
    Huldai, Tel Aviv's mayor since 1998, already apportions city budgets for its annual beachfront gay pride parade, and there is a gay film festival and municipal centre for the gay community offering cultural and athletic programmes for teenagers and young adults.
    As a measure of how far Tel Aviv has come, rabbis who held sway in the Mediterranean city in 1955 blocked a bid by a woman to win election as mayor. Golda Meir later went on to become Israel's first woman prime minister.
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