Abstract
Israeli has been labeled the gay Mecca of the Middle East, a liberal oasis surrounded by socially
conservative countries where members of the LGBTQ communities can live freely and openly.
Yet, Israeli cinema complicates this myth. Queer Israeli cinema requires an encompassing
critical perspective, one that necessitates the careful, interdisciplinary articulation of ideas related
to subaltern precepts of race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, whiteness, religion, and of course,
nationalism. These precepts are fundamental to the bricolage of Jewish identity, which has
inspired centuries of cultural thought from thinkers such as Jean-François Lyotard offering
blank(et) affirmations about the special position reserved for Jews within this context. Are Jews
uniquely positioned to inform debates that arise from these arguments? In this course we will
analyze what representations of various Israeli queer communities tell us about Israeli society.
We will want to explore how heteronormative cinematic narratives may either ignore or make
invisible historically marginalized communities and what kind of socio-political work does
Israeli queer cinema perform?