According to reports, Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, a 25-year-old Palestinian, was abducted and brutally beheaded in Hebron, a city in the West Bank. Ahmad Abu had fled the West Bank into Israel because his sexual orientation was made public. Ahmad Abu had been living in Israel as an asylum seeker for the previous two years after authorities determined that returning to the Palestinian Territories would put his life at risk. Abu’s journey to Hebron is still a mystery.
Before being apprehended by Palestinian Authority police near the location of the incident, the suspect captured the act in a video that he shared on social media. Ahmad Abu was looking to seek asylum in Canada for the past 2 years but was beheaded before his documents could be processed.
Ahmad Abu Marhia, who at the time of his death was living as an asylum seeker in Israel and hoping to flee the country to Canada, was found decapitated in the West Bank city of Hebron. It is believed to be because he was gay. https://t.co/yPIH9QZnaq
— Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) October 16, 2022
According to Israeli authorities, PA police, and the Abu Murkhiyeh family, the victim and his attacker had never met before. No motive has been identified as a consequence of the Palestinian Authority police investigation, although the suspect is now being examined thoroughly.
In order to prepare Abu Murkhiyeh’s asylum papers for his eventual resettlement in Canada, Rita Petrenko, the founder of Al-Bayt Al-Mukhtalif, a non-profit organisation devoted to the empowerment of the Arabian LGBT community, claimed to have helped. She also claimed that he actively participated in LGBT discussion groups. Petrenko expressed regret that Abu had not been evacuated to safety in Canada before his life was brutally taken, calling him “hard-working and intelligent.”
According to Petrenko, Abu Murkhiyeh had not visited the West Bank since taking refuge in Israel out of concern for what his estranged family and fellow villagers would do to him. She said that there are records of his trips to many LGBT shelters in Israel. He had not told any of his friends about his intention to travel to the West Bank.
Although homosexual people are allowed to live their lives freely in Israel, homosexuality is frowned upon in the strictest social and religious circles in both Palestinian and Israeli societies. Approximately 90 Palestinians who identify as LGBT people are now seeking refuge in Israel. Before emigrating, they faced prejudice and, in some cases, violence in their communities.
