Israel’s umbrella group for the LGBTQ community has “zero intentions of groveling or begging” to be reinstated as a member of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), even as it prepares to present its case at a hearing about its suspension from the group at some yet to be determined date, The Aguda’s chairwoman, Hila Peer, told eJewishPhilanthropy.
After 40 years of membership, it should already be clear to all involved what The Aguda stands for as a human rights organization, she said, but added that representatives from the organization will attend whenever a hearing is held.
ILGA announced that it was suspending The Aguda from its ranks on Wednesday, after also rejecting its bid to host ILGA’s upcoming conference either in 2026 or 2027 in Tel Aviv and apologizing to other members for even allowing the proposal to be introduced.
“I feel like it should be very obvious once we state our case [that we should be reinstated] and if it’s not clear, then as much as they don’t want us there, I will not agree to stay under an umbrella organization… that is so narrow-minded,” said Peer. “There is also a matter of a sense of pride in knowing the justness of the [path] that you are walking.”
It is likely that some of the criticism from ILGA may have stemmed from The Aguda’s distribution of aid packages to Israeli reserve soldiers, Peer said, but the organization stands behind that campaign.
“I completely understand that there are horrors taking place 70 kilometers from where I sit right now. Yet the way to approach that reality is not to suspend the membership of a working human rights organization,” she said, speaking from Tel Aviv.
Peer said that beyond the personal offense that many in Israel felt by the ILGA decision, she is more concerned about what the ramifications of the decision could be on the Jewish queer community outside of Israel, given the current political climate and fears it could be used as a weapon against queer Jews in the Diaspora, with organizations abroad refusing to give services to LGBTQ Jews.
“I’m afraid that the organizations that were not in favor of Israel will use this as another bullet in the chamber, [so] the declaration can be harmfully used against some of us…[giving] a narrative where we are the bad guys, saying do not go there, do not communicate with them,” said Peer.
Ethan Felson, executive director of the U.S.-based LGBTQ Jewish organization A Wider Bridge, said he has already spoken with the leadership of The Aguda and was standing by the group.
“They didn’t sign up for this. They exist to expand LGBTQ equality, and they are preparing to make their case to an organization that appears to misunderstand what The Aguda is all about,” Felson told eJP.
“Obviously this action by ILGA is profoundly offensive. They suspended a group before even communicating with them, and they vastly misunderstand the work that The Aguda does,” he said. “The Aguda serves a community in need. Like many of the other members of ILGA, they run hotlines, they support social services, and they fight for LGBTQ equality. Like many groups in ILGA, they don’t have a foreign policy. They don’t act on domestic foreign policy. They are there to support and assist an LGBTQ community that is Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Israeli, Palestinian, Druze. They assist in supporting Palestinian refugees. I hope that doesn’t get lost in this story. ILGA has taken an action here that was ill-considered, and I would hope that its board, its members and its sponsors would ask some serious questions on why they have singled out this important organization that is so similar to other ILGA or member agencies in a way that appears so hypocritical — it boggles the mind.”
Felson added that there is a “gaslighting narrative” being pushed that somehow the LGBTQ community is anti-Israel while their data actually shows that gay and lesbian Americans are as, or more likely than, all other Americans to say that Israel shares their values, he said.
“What we need is true leadership in the LGBTQ community, because we’re here to expand LGBTQ equality, not to engage in foreign policy,” he said. “We are communicating with, and asking others to communicate with, elected officials, LGBTQ organizations that belong to ILGA and the supporters of ILGA that may not know that they are underwriting bigotry.”
Peer said the suspension status is liable to negatively affect fundraising and international outreach efforts — which have already taken a hit since the outbreak of war after Oct. 7. It will also affect the amount of people who will be exposed to the LGBTQ community in Israel, she said.
“It is very gloomy when we talk about international relationships,” she said.
Still, they have been reaching out to partners and friends abroad, she said, and some of the reaction has been “amazing,” she said.
Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, wrote on X that he was in “full solidarity” with The Aguda, saying that boycotting liberal voices “achieves nothing for the Palestinian cause.” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who is typically highly critical of Israel, also criticized the suspension, saying it did not “advance peace or justice or the Palestinian cause” but rather “marginalized progressive voices within Israel.” The African Human Rights Coalition, which maintains offices in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Toronto and Nairobi, Kenya, forfeited its ILGA membership in protest of The Aguda’s suspension in a letter written by executive director Melanie Nathan.
“We believe Israeli organizations and Israel, should not be singled out, cancelled, suspended or expelled based on the actions of the administration or government in that country, especially when no other country is taken to task in the same way. Punishing the Israeli LGBTQI+ community and its organizations is no way for ILGA to represent global LGBTQI+ interests,” Nathan wrote in the resignation letter.
It is not the first time that the Israeli community or Jewish community has been given the cold shoulder from international communities in the past year, but The Aguda’s suspension seems different in that ILGA represents 2,000 organizations in the international LGBTQ community and has created a gap between the Israeli group and the other members, she said.
“What is happening here is actually that the organization as a civil rights organization is being internationally judged due to [Israeli] government policies,” she said, noting that Russian groups were not suspended following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “They’re flattening the entire civil society in Israel into the government’s actions and I think that is very small-minded and a narrow way to look at things. The way they perceive us is very one dimensional as a country, as a society. I think it’s simply outrageous to connect the human rights organization to colonialism.”
Peer noted that The Aguda strives to be apolitical because it represents members from all sides of the political spectrum, and its core mandate is as a human rights organization defending the rights of the LGBTQ community of Israel regardless of their religious, ethnic or political affiliations.
While opponents have long used charges of the Israeli government highlighting Israel’s progressive stance on LGBTQ rights as a way of “pinkwashing” to divert attention from the Palestinian issue, Peer said, The Aguda does not allow itself to be used a pawn in the political arena and neither has it publicized the work it does within the Arab and asylum-seeking LGBTQ communities.
“I don’t even feel the need to start justifying [ourselves] by speaking out about the activities that The Aguda is undertaking and what projects we have,” she said.
“It’s like they are questioning us. Just the suspension itself is absurd given the fact they do know us as a very old organization that has worked with them,” she said. “Our credits are right there to be seen, so I don’t really understand what their investigation is. Reality is complex. It’s hard and challenging to be Jewish in this time. It’s even more complicated to be Jewish and queer in this time. It is also the responsibility of queer people across the globe to be able to see and comprehend complexity. And if they cannot do that, [ILGA] is not a place that I can be in or am interested in being a member of.”
