THE MAN WHO WOULD BE ISRAELI
Ilan Lior
Ha’aretz
July 26, 2011
Israel
Tobmas Glastian came to Israel to become a priest. But once he came
out as gay and left the church, the Interior Ministry refused to
grant him a visa to stay here.
Tobmas Glastian wants to be an Israeli. “Everyone calls me Tomas,”
he says, accepting the mispronunciation with understanding. He has
lived here for almost half his life, all his friends are Israeli, and
he speaks Hebrew almost at the same level as a native speaker. The
truth is that he already feels Israeli in every way – and only the
official document is missing.
Glastian, 29, was born in Armenia. He arrived in Israel at the age of
16 to study at the seminar of the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem,
with the intention of becoming a priest. He studied there for three
years until one day he decided to escape. He had understood he was
a homosexual and wanted to come out of the closet.
Glastian had not told anyone at the seminar about his sexual
preference. He knew the church would consider it a terrible sin
and would not accept him into its fold. At first, he informed only
his parents in Armenia, but their response left him frightened and
desperate.
“My parents no longer wanted me. They said they would rather I die than
go back home. That shut the door for me; I no longer have a family,”
he says.
Thus, Glastian was left completely alone at the age of 19. He hastened
to leave Jerusalem in favor of Tel Aviv. He was scared to go back to
conservative Armenia and, in fact, he admits, he had no reason to
go there. Three years later, a long while after his visa to Israel
had expired, he was unable to find work and decided to turn to the
United Nations and ask for political asylum in Israel. As part of
a routine process, he was granted the temporary status of an asylum
seeker that has to be renewed every six months.
“They don’t even allow me to request permanent residency status,” he
says, adding that every time he raises the subject, he is told he has
to undergo a comprehensive interview once more to get refugee status
and only then will he be able to request permanent residency in Israel.
“I don’t have a problem with undergoing an interview again,” he says.
“They have been telling me for two and a half years already that I
must go for the interview but they don’t make an appointment for me.
Every time I ask them, they say: ‘Okay, we’ll make an appointment
and tell you to come,’ but nothing moves.”
Meanwhile, Glastian heads off to the Interior Ministry’s office every
six months. “I wait there for three hours; they check here, they
investigate there; and in the end, they tell them on the telephone:
‘Come on! Sign already.’ They treat me there in a humiliating fashion;
it’s very offensive. Today, without bragging, I consider myself
more Israeli than an Israeli. There is not a drop of Armenia in me
any longer.”
A few months ago, Glastian turned to Knesset member Nitzan Horowitz
of Meretz and requested his help. Horowitz sent him to attorney
Dr Yuval Livnat from Tel Aviv University’s Human Rights Clinic who
deals with the rights of refugees, in the hope he would help to get
matters solved. Judging by past experience, Livnat is not optimistic –
on the contrary.
No homosexual has so far been recognized as a refugee in Israel.
According to the UN’s Refugee Charter, a refugee is a person who
is faced with a real threat of persecution in his homeland on the
background of race, religion, nationality, political affiliation or
belonging to a certain social group.
“All the countries in the western world have determined that
homosexuals and lesbians belonging to a certain social group, and
therefore they can be considered refugees,” says Livnat. “In the
State of Israel, at the present moment, this is not yet so.”
Even if Glastian manages to create a precedent and becomes the first
homosexual who is recognized as a refugee in Israel, he will still be
far from having the permanent-resident status he so desires. Israel has
never granted permanent residency to a refugee. “To my great regret,
in Israel, even if you are recognized as a refugee, you remain a
temporary resident forever,” Livnat explains. “As of today, that is
the unfortunate lot of all the refugees in Israel.”
Despite the difficulties, Glastian speaks admiringly of Israel. He
feels this is his country. “I love this country. In my first interview
at the UN, they asked me if I would prefer to go to another country
and I didn’t want to under any circumstances. But from time to time,
I have the feeling that maybe I made a mistake and that perhaps it
would have been better to go somewhere else where they absorb you
immediately and they give you the opportunity to advance in life and
not to remain stuck,” he says.
“Today, with all my love for Israel, I feel like I am stuck and this
hurts me a great deal.”
According to the Interior Ministry: “Mr Tobmas Glastian entered Israel
in 1998 on a tourist visa. After a number of years, he registered
with the UN and submitted a request for political asylum, and it
was decided to give him a temporary work permit until a decision was
made in his case. His visa is a temporary one that is given for as
long as the request is under consideration and it has to be renewed
every few months. The visa makes it possible to work in Israel. His
request is being examined by the population and migration authority.”
From: Baghdasarian
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/the-man-who-would-be-israeli-1.375260