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Rainbows over Israel and Germany

 

The gay and lesbian communities of both countries are forging strong ties.

 

The idea for a gay travel site came to Lior Gonen during a trip to Berlin about eight years ago. "We headed for Berlin because for us it was considered the place to be if you are gay. We were all eager travelers from Tel Aviv, just waiting to discover the hotspots of the city. But then we realized we had no idea where to go," recalls Gonen, one of the founders of the Gayway travel site. In her experience, Berlin is one of the most popular, if not the most popular destination for gay and lesbian Israeli tourists.

 

It was in fact the Israeli LGBT community which pioneered the broader Israeli infatuation with Berlin. Today, around 15,000 Israelis live in Berlin. And the Israeli airline El Al’s low-cost Up subsidiary flies to Berlin as only one of five destinations in Europe. Despite its clear adoption by the mainstream, Berlin has retained a strong identity as the Gay Capital of Germany. Nothing symbolizes this more than an event in 2001 that culminated in a single sentence: ”I am gay, and that’s a good thing.” It was proclaimed at a party convention by Klaus Wowereit who later became Berlin’s mayor. It was the first time in German history that an active politician outed himself as homosexual.

That said, Berlin is not the only popular German destination for LGBT Israelis, and they do not only consume but also contribute. Take DJ Michal Serr, for instance. Serr, a darling of the lesbian community in Israel, has been performing at the L-Beach festival in Northern Germany, at the She–La Party in Munich, and at the Mermaid in Berlin, to name but a few. And Serr is not the only Israeli working the record decks in German clubs. Despite the fact that there is a language gap, the DJ says, the music the Israelis bring to the dance floor is a hit among the German audience. To see how true this is, she says, all you have to do is watch a German crowd dancing and cheering to Oriental music and Hebrew songs.

 

Still, Berlin holds a special place in Serr’s heart. “There is something about Berlin that is very accepting of difference,” she says. “There's a very diverse community that can allow people of all persuasions of LGBT to feel comfortable."

Gay tourism to Israel has likewise come a long way in recent years. In 2006, as part of a cooperation with the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and Aguda (the Israeli national LGBT task force), Israel's first conference on gay tourism was held in Eilat. In 2009, a Conference of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) was held in Israel for the first time. In 2011, Tel Aviv won the accolade of “the world’s best gay city.” The annual Gay Pride Parade in Tel Aviv has become a fixed star in the city’s calendar, a real holiday. Some say the ‘White City’, so-called on account of its historical white buildings in the Bauhaus style, would in fact be better called ‘Rainbow City’.

 

“Every time someone visited, they became an ambassador for Israel,” says Lior Gonen of Gayway travel. “There is much disbelief because of the huge gap between what you see on TV and what you actually experience on the ground. Those who come here always come back." According to Gonen, on vacation it is important for gays and lesbians to feel safe walking around and to have fun at the same time. “Among the LGBT community, there are a great number of people who head for Israel on their holidays. I have hardly seen any cancellations, even when there’s been a security threat,” Gonen adds. The fact that in all of the Middle East, Israel is the only country to support gay rights legislation, adds to its attraction, even though there are still milestones to reach down the path to achieving full equality.

 

Mutual interests are also apparent in the world of film. This year, the Tel Aviv LGBT International Film Festival was sponsored by major German cultural institutions. Among them are leading LGBT magazines “L-Mag” and “Siegessäule”, alongside the Goethe-Institut, which has supported the festival from the outset. During the festival, two film collections from the most important German LGBT film festivals were presented: one group of films curated by “Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage” in Hamburg, and the other by “XPOSED” in Berlin.

The message has never been louder nor prouder: Gay tourists of both countries: “Baruch Habba!” “Willkommen!”

Mayaan Ben Tura

Partner

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

This is the archived content of official bilateral website that was founded by the German and Israeli government on the occasion of the Jubilee Year 2015. This website contains the articles of the bilateral website, but will be static and will not be maintained. It serves as documentation of the multi-faceted cooperation between Germany and Israel We hope you enjoy exploring 50 years of German-Israeli relations!

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