LGBT+ community is a “culture of perversion,” say Palestinian UNRWA workers

• Biting the hand that feeds it: PA/PLO attacks UNRWA for imposing “condemnable” equality for LGBT+

• Palestinian UNRWA employees: UNRWA attempts to spread ‘the culture of perversion’ in Palestinian society
   
• PA/PLO demands UNRWA cancel code of conduct that includes LGBT+ rights because it contradicts “the human and religious norms and values, the Islamic morals of the Palestinians, and the instructions of the religion”
   
• UNRWA’s insinuation that there may be UNRWA employees or Palestinian refugees who identity as LGBT+ “constitutes slander and a false libel”
   
• PA Parliament in Gaza condemns UNRWA

All UNRWA wanted was to declare the obvious - that the LGBT+ community be treated equally in UNRWA settings. Yet that simple request has triggered an all out culture war of Palestinians against UNRWA.

The PA has harshly criticized UNRWA over a new employee “code of conduct” that defined gender equality as including homosexuals and transexuals. The PA has made it crystal clear that there is no such thing as LGBT+ rights in the PA or even acceptance of the mere existence of an LGBT+ community. The PA demanded that UNRWA “cancel” the directive, in a showdown that comes despite the fact that the PA is heavily supported by UNRWA’s services.

In its condemnation of the UNRWA stance - as expressed by the PLO Department of Refugee Affairs in a statement – the PA communicated that the LGBT+ “orientations and identities”:

• ​​​​​​“contradict the principles of the Islamic religion and its rituals and the moral principles of the Palestinian society”
• “contradict the human and religious norms and values in general and also the Islamic morals of the Palestinians”
• “contradict our Palestinian people’s social values and the instructions of our religion”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 16, 2023]

Moreover, the PA took great offense at the mere thought that there are LGBT+ people among UNRWA employees or Palestinian refugees. In the eyes of the PA, this insinuation “constitutes slander and a false libel against the employees and refugees alike.”

In addition to the PA/PLO, the code of conduct also “aroused the rage of the employee associations, the [PA] Parliament (Legislative Council) in the Gaza Strip, and a number of non-governmental organizations.” [Palestinian Refugees Portal, Palestinian website, Sept. 16, 2023]

According to the Joint Committee of UNRWA Employee Associations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip the code of conduct is:

"[Part of] UNRWA’s attempts to spread ‘the culture of perversion’ in Palestinian society as one of the principles of equality.”

[Palestinian Refugees Portal, Palestinian website, Sept. 16, 2023]

The PA’s demand to cancel the UNRWA code of conduct focused on a section in it on “sexual orientations and gender identity,” which states as follows: 

“UNRWA views equality between the two sexes in accordance with the views of the UN, and therefore equality between the two sexes is defined as including the colleagues (i.e., UNRWA employees) and beneficiaries (i.e., Palestinian refugees) from among the lesbians, homosexuals, bisexuals, transexuals, queers, intersexuals, and those who belong to other sexual groups (LGBTQI+). If this contradicts the local cultural conventions, our conduct must be guided by the standards of conduct of international civil service and the rest of the UN regulations and rules.”

[Palestinian Refugees Portal, Palestinian website, Sept. 16, 2023]

Even while stating that they “respect human rights,” the PA/PLO explicitly demanded that UNRWA erase all reference to “sexual orientations and gender identity that appear in the code of conduct”:

“The PLO respects the human principles of human rights that do not contradict the principles of the Islamic religion and its rituals and the moral principles of the Palestinian society. It called on the UNRWA management to remove all the terms that relate to sexual orientations and gender identity that appear in the code of conduct and to erase them.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 16, 2023]

Palestinian Media Watch has reported on the PA’s anti-LGBT+ stance and how violence against members of the community is on the rise.

The following is the report on the PA’s protest and the UNRWA employees reactions:

Headline: “The PLO Department of Refugee Affairs called on UNRWA to cancel what was included in the code of conduct regarding gender identity”

“The PLO Department of Refugee Affairs and its popular committees in the Palestinian refugee camps demanded that UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) cancel the code of conduct prepared by the Ethics Office to regularize the conduct of its employees.

In a statement yesterday [Sept. 15, 2023], the department said that its demand stems from regulations that were included in the code and contradict our Palestinian people’s social values and the instructions of our religion.

The [PLO] department firmly rejected the integration of language that deals with sexual orientations and gender identity in the code of conduct of UNRWA employees and the claim that there are UNRWA employees and refugees like that, which constitutes slander and a false libel against the employees and refugees alike.

It added: This is condemnable and completely rejected as it contradicts the human and religious norms and values in general and also the Islamic morals of the Palestinians wherever they are.

The [PLO] department emphasized that what appeared in the code of regulations regarding this under the clause ‘equality between the sexes and its clarifications,’ is still under debate between the UN General Assembly member states and it has yet to be decided, and that the UNRWA administration has no right to impose principles or issues that are connected to gender identity that have yet to be approved in the framework of the UN.

The department emphasized that the PLO respects the human principles of human rights that do not contradict the principles of the Islamic religion and its rituals and the moral principles of the Palestinian society.It called on the UNRWA management to remove all the terms that relate to sexual orientations and gender identity that appear in the code of conduct and to erase them. The department expressed wonder in its statement at how the UNRWA management dares to bring in principles that still constitute a point of controversy among the UN General Assembly member states, forces its employees to accept them and sign off on them, and forces them to adopt cultures that contradict their values.

The department also condemned the fact that a number of donor states are imposing conditions on UNRWA for funding its budget, which include that its employees will accept the matter of gender identity, and will commit themselves to objectivity that steals their national identity from them and also to rejecting Antisemitism and changing the [UNRWA] curriculum.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 16, 2023]

Headline: “The UNRWA associations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip condemn the contents of the code of conduct disseminated by the [UNRWA] agency”

“The Joint Committee of UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) Employee Associations in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip expressed its firm opposition to what it described as UNRWA’s attempts to spread ‘the culture of perversion’ in Palestinian society as one of the principles of equality. It called on all sidesnot to cooperate with the [UNRWA] code of conduct that was recently disseminated.

The committee said in a statement that the UNRWA management deliberately disseminated publications harming values and customs among the directors of the educational districts, and this was in order to disseminate them among the [UNRWA] teachers in the Gaza Strip. It called on all the [UNRWA] employees – the department directors, branch heads, and program heads – to return these publications to those who published them, not to relate to them, and to carry out the instructions of the employee associations.

The code of conduct disseminated by UNRWA included a call for equality between the two sexes, including so-called ‘homosexuals.’ The section that aroused the rage of the employee associations, the [PA] Parliament (Legislative Council) in the Gaza Strip, and a number of non-governmental organizations said:

‘UNRWA views equality between the two sexes in accordance with the views of the UN, and therefore equality between the two sexes is defined as including the colleagues (i.e., UNRWA employees) and beneficiaries (i.e., Palestinian refugees) from among the lesbians, homosexuals, bisexuals, transexuals, queers, intersexuals, and those who belong to other sexual groups (LGBTQI+). If this contradicts the local cultural conventions, our conduct must be guided by the standards of conduct of international civil service and the rest of the UN regulations and rules.’”

[Palestinian Refugees Portal, Palestinian website, Sept. 16, 2023]