Rauda Morcos

Rauda Morcos (; ) is a Palestinian–Israeli lesbian poet and LGBTQ activist, who grew up in Haifa. In 2003, she was outed as a lesbian by a national newspaper, leading to dismissal from her job, physical assaults, and her car being damaged. She then helped other women in setting up Aswat, the first Palestinian group dedicated to supporting lesbians, which she initially led. “Most of the members” of Aswat, would be considered Israeli Arabs by governmental entities as they live within current borders of Israel. However, as an organization, Aswat emphasizes its connection to the West Bank and Gaza, identifying as a group for “Palestinian gay women.”

Career In 2003, Morcos was interviewed for Yedioth Ahronoth (an Israeli tabloid newspaper) about her poetry, and lost her job as a youth educator. During the interview, in passing she mentioned her sexuality. She said the journalist promised not to reveal her sexual orientation but then outed her as a lesbian, which led to her being assaulted and her car being damaged many times. She received anonymous threats and was concerned for her life.

Morcos then joined other women in 2000 in an online forum that started the regular meetings in 2001 and set up Aswat ("Voices"; which she has formerly led) in 2003 as an organisation supporting lesbians and bisexual, inter-sex, queer, transsexual, transgender, and questioning women, the only group for Arab lesbians in the Arab region. It was based in Haifa, and was the first regional group to offer support to lesbian Palestinians. In 2004 the group had 14 members. In 2007, when Aswat had about 30 members and held its first conference, the Islamic Movement in Israel (a grouping of Arab Muslims) publicly called for the meeting to be cancelled and urged its community "to stand against the campaign to market sexual deviance among our daughters and our women." Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur, head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, said: "Our community does not tolerate this kind of behaviour. The consensus feels it is kind of a disease that must be healed ..." Aswat held its first conference in Haifa in 2007, with 350 attendees. She has also spoken of links between Israeli repression of Palestinians and gay people, criticising the Israeli LGBT rights movement for not focusing more upon it. She commented that "I think the Palestinian identity and the Queer identity converge in being both marginalized and they are both about resisting oppression".

In August 2020, Morcos spoke about a positive change in the Palestinian community's treatment of LGBTQ members after the funeral of Ayman Safieh, who was a leading member of the Palestinian queer community.