Surrogacy for gay male Israeli couples

Israeli laws concerning rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community are far more progressive than the laws which punish homosexuality in certain neighboring Middle Eastern countries.  The Israeli outlook on LGBT rights, from a legal perspective, at least, is also somewhat more progressive than the U.S.  For example, here in the United States, the Senate has just adjourned its two-day hearings on the possible repeal of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell law.  Meanwhile, Israel has had members of the LGBT community serving openly in the military since 1993.  In this short documentary, Israel: Gay Oasis, there is a segment at 2:05 of an openly gay IDF soldier discussing his positive experience in the Israeli military.



Recently, a new legal question regarding LGBT rights has arisen in Israel, this one specifically concerning gay men.  The issue is the legality of surrogate parenthood for same-sex male couples.  According to this article from Forward: The Jewish Daily, Israeli women have been eligible for state-funded fertility treatments since the early 1990s.  Additionally, a 1996 law concerning surrogacy specifies that the Israeli Health Ministry is only to approve the procedure when it involves a couple consisting of a man and a woman.  Because of these circumstances, it is relatively easy for Israeli lesbian couples to have children as compared to gay Israeli men.

A gay couple from Tel Aviv is hoping that the law can be changed.  Last year, Etai Pinkas and Yoav Arad asked the Health Ministry to allow them the option of surrogacy, but were denied due to the 1996 law.  The couple hired Dori Spivak (the same lawyer who, in 2002, argued successfully for the right of gay partners to inherent the one’s property in the event of the other’s death based on the idea that the social norms upon which the 1964 inheritance law were based no longer applied) to take their petition to the high court.  Spivak believes that the intent of the wording of the 1996 law (i.e. the clause specifying eligibility for surrogacy to “a man and a woman who are a couple”) did not intend to deprive gay men the right to the option of surrogacy.  If this argument does not alone convince the court, Spivak will argue that “the existing law clashes with the guarantees of equality in the 1992 Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty.”

Unfortunately for Pinkas, Arad, and the rest of Israel’s gay male population who would like to become parents via a surrogate, they will have to wait at least a year for a Health Ministry committee’s review of the current law.  Meanwhile, in an initial response to the court, the Israeli government sounds open to the idea of revising the law, but says the decision should come from the Knesset, not the court. 

Pinkas and Arad are currently trying another option, wherein the entire surrogacy process is carried out in another country.  This trend began about five years ago when some gay Israeli couples had children through American surrogates.  The process was expensive, however, costing up to $150,000.  One couple who went the American surrogate route was Doron Gidony and Doron Mamet.  Recognizing the fact that many gay couples in Israel might find themselves wanting children, but unable to afford the process he and Gidony went through, Mamet founded Tammuz which “outsources” the process to India.  A fertilized egg from an American donor is carried by an Indian surrogate, significantly reducing the cost of the process.  Pinkas and Arad are now in the process with Tammuz.

Dorion Gidony (left), his partner, Dorion Mamet, and their daughter

This “outsourcing” of surrogacy is a controversial matter, and is the subject of the HBO documentary Google Baby by Israeli director Zippi Frank.  In the synopsis of the film, Frank says, “The business aspects of the reproduction industry are intriguing, as well as frightening.  With no real existing legal barriers to overcome and lots of money to be made, the human reproduction industry is steaming ahead, and a cold and distant business is emerging, guided only by the principles of the free-market dealing.  Given the complexities and sensitive issues surrounding reproduction and birth, this could be dangerous.”

Trailer

Gidony and Mamet’s story, as well as the Tammuz business, are highlighted in the documentary.  It appears to be a critical documentary, but Mamet offers a rebuttal to critical elements of it on the Tammuz website, saying, “When I look at the impact of the movie I'm feeling ambivalence. On one end surrogacy and egg donation is a morally loaded topic - people are uncomfortable with it and more so when it happens in India. On the other end, there are thousands of couples in the world for whom this is the only way to make their parenting dream come true; and there are many women for whom surrogacy is the only way to get their family out of poverty. Morality cannot be inferred in a vacuum without considering all impacted sides; I for one believe that there is a big moral issue with those who seek to decide for me or to interfere with my chances to be father and with the chances of a surrogate to help her family (I urge anybody to think of their reaction if some social moral standards were denying them their parenting right).”

The source for the main article was Forward: The Jewish Daily, which, according to Wikipedia, is an American publication founded in 1897 by Yiddish socialist labor party members, and today “maintains a left of center editorial stance.”  This could have something to do with why the article discusses Mamet’s business, but leaves out the part about it being controversial.  The other sources were the Tammuz website and HBO’s webpage for Google Baby.  In these cases, either side has a major bias toward its own viewpoint on this “morally loaded” topic.  For Mamet, the work he does is a product of his own struggle to become a parent and his desire to help others in his situation do the same.  For Zippi Frank, the “reproduction industry” making it possible to order babies over the internet has frightening implications. 

I think both sides have a point. Ultimately, it seems like a good idea if the Knesset just changes the 1996 law so gay couples don't have to go outside of Israel to find a surrogate.

A bridge over troubled waters?

Could the Christian community of Israel act as a bridge between Muslims and Jews?  Michail Fanous-- executive director of Open House in Ramle-- thinks so, and he is not alone.

Open House is a “unique community-based coexistence center” which operates out of a little house in Ramle.  The house itself acts as a microcosm of the Arab-Israeli conflict.  It was built in 1936 by the Al-Khayri family.  They were Palestinian Arabs who were forced to flee their home as a result the 1948 War.  Dalia Eshkanazi Landau’s family were Bulgarian Jews who immigrated to Israel and moved into the house, which had been labeled “abandoned property” by the state.  In an open letter to Bashir Al-Khayri, Dalia explains what it was like to come to terms with her adopted country’s history, and describes the experience of coming face to face with the people who had built their lives in that house before they were forced to abandon it.

Bashir was arrested for his activities in the PFLP, which included allegations of involvement with a bomb that killed multiple civilians.  In his response to Dalia’s letter, he explains how what looks like an act of terrorism to one person, can be an expression of nationalistic self-determination to another.   He says, “we were exiled by force of arms. We were exiled but we left our souls, our hopes and our childhood in Palestine. We left our joys and sorrows. We left them in every corner, and on every grain of sand in Palestine.”  Bashir once tried to return to his homeland, this place which contained his very soul.  He boarded the Al-Awda in 1988, which was sunk in the Cypriot port.  

Dalia Eshkanazi Landau

This revelation shocked Dalia.  Even more shocking was the story Bashir told next.  In 1948, the six year old Bashir found a shiny metal object around his house and brought it inside to play with it.  It turned out to be an explosive which blew off most of his left hand.  Because of these incidents, Bashir had a very different perspective of Zionism than Dalia had.  Bashir had this response to Dalia’s descriptions of his actions as terrorism: “You cannot equate the struggle of the people for liberation and independence and self-determination.  You cannot equate that with aggression, expansionism and oppression of the other.”

As a result of this dialogue, Open House was born.  It runs a nursery school for Arab toddlers, both Christian and Muslim, as well as a Center for Jewish-Arab Coexistence and Reconciliation.  Its executive director is Michail Fanous, a Christian Arab and former educator, who became a prominent voice in Ramle educational policy when Mayor Yoel Lavi recognized an unacceptable gap between Jewish and Arab educational quality, and set out to find innovative ways of reconciling it.  

Fanous says he has often felt “like a bridge between Jews and Muslims.  Christians have always lived between the two worlds.  So, maybe we’re the ones who can connect them.” (Rosenthal, 305).  Perhaps occupying this position “between two worlds” gives the Christian Israelis a less-biased perspective of the conflict, in much the same way that children, innocent of the weight of history, see no reason to differentiate amongst playmates.  “‘Most of the time we reach parents through their kids,’ Michail reports, ‘As they learn about each other, they see that if you don’t talk, you can’t make peace.’” (Rosenthal, 322).  This video shows some Israeli teens from the Open House program aiming to do just that:  learn about each other, talk, and make peace.

Another Christian Israeli hoping to be a part of this bridge between Jews and Muslims is Maher Turjman, Regional Director for the Pontifical Mission for Palestine.  According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette “the agency provides both emergency assistance and long-term education and development to the region, without distinction of the recipient's nationality or religion.”  In this audio clip, Turjman mentions his own hope that his organization can act as a bridge between Jews and Muslims.

Maher Turjman

The sources for this post appear reliable.  The idea to look further into the Open House program came from Donna Rosenthal’s book, and the information about the Pontifical Mission for Palestine comes off the Pittsburgh Post Gazette website, which is Pittsburgh’s largest daily paper.