Persecuted for his homosexuality, a young Palestinian found beheaded in the West Bank

Participant at Gay Pride in Warsaw, Poland.

Illustrative image.

©JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Persecuted for being homosexual, a Palestinian was found dead beheaded in the West Bank.

The 25-year-old fled his village near Hebron and found refuge in Israel.

"

 He was probably abducted, brought back to the Palestinian Territories, before being executed because of his sexual orientation 

", according to "

 Different House

 ", the Israeli organization for the defense of LGBTQ rights, which had collected him. 

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With our correspondent in Jerusalem,

Sami Boukhelifa

,

Two years ago, Ahmed Abu Morkhiyeh left the

Palestinian Territories

 and found refuge in Israel.

It was there that he met Tomer Aldubi, a volunteer with “

 Al-beit Al-mokhtalef 

”, “

 the Different House 

”, in French.

This Israeli NGO supports Palestinians from the LGBTQ community.

His story was similar to that of many gay Palestinians

," says the volunteer

.

Of course, some may live their homosexuality more or less openly in the West Bank.

But the majority of them live in hiding.

Some even marry people of different sexes, to maintain secrecy.

If they are in danger, they flee to Israel, and then hope to find refuge in a better place, such as Canada, Australia or another country

 ”.  

Ahmed Abu Morkhiyeh was also soon to leave for Canada.

"

 He therefore had no reason to return to the West Bank

 " where he was found dead, regrets Tomer Aldubi. 

 We think he was kidnapped by people who wanted to kill him.

It has happened to other Palestinians before him.

Their plan was carefully crafted.

It's not an easy thing to kidnap someone, take them to the West Bank, kill them and film their death.

That's why we think he was kidnapped.

But we'll probably never know what happened to him 

." 

Videos showing the tortured young man have been broadcast on the internet.

He was found decapitated. 

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  • Palestinian territories

  • Israel

  • LGBT+