Cruising the Mixed City: Homosexual Palestinian–Jewish Encounters in 1990s Haifa

Abstract This article explores sexual relationships between Palestinian and Jewish men in 1990s Haifa, analyzing how these interactions were shaped by shifting national and sexual politics. It focuses on the city’s cruising grounds on the seamline between Jewish and Palestinians neighborhoods, providing a spatial analysis of these key sites. Central to the study are two murder cases involving Jewish men and their younger Arab partners, sensationalized in the media as “homosexual murders.” These cases highlight the impact of economic pressures, shifting sexual norms, and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on the intimate lives of the men involved. Utilizing resources from the Haifa Queer History Project’s archive, supplemented by interviews with local gay and transgender communities and police officers involved in the murder investigations, as well as analysis of national press in Hebrew and Arabic, the study offers new insights into how sexual and romantic intergroup encounters are deeply intertwined with broader sociopolitical dynamics. This research contributes to the fields of queer history and Jewish–Palestinian relations, underscoring the complex interplay between sexuality and politics in a contested urban space.