JERUSALEM: A rare gathering of openly gay Arab activists is slated to be held in Israel this month, drawing the ire of religious conservatives.

Headlined "Home and Exile," the March 28 meeting is meant to spark discussion of homosexuality among Israel's 1 million Arab citizens, said Roula Deeb, a prominent Arab feminist and one of the scheduled speakers.

The conference is being organized by Aswat, an Arab lesbian group based in Haifa, a coastal city home to both Jews and Arabs.

Around 100 to 150 people are expected to show up, Deeb said. With homosexuality a taboo topic in much of the Arab world, the meeting is important simply because it is taking place.

Israel is generally tolerant of homosexuality, and the country's secular metropolis, Tel Aviv, is home to a thriving gay community. But Israel's Arabs, who make up 20 percent of the population, live mostly in separate communities and homosexuality is still considered out of bounds.

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When news of the conference, which was advertised on Aswat's Web site, reached the Islamic Movement in Israel, it sparked a war of words between Arab liberals and Muslim conservatives.

In fairness, one can find almost exact paraphases of these quotations in a number of languages -- Russian, Polish, Latvian, and English come immediately to mind.

A conference of Palestinian lesbians, scheduled to be held in Haifa at the end of the month, has raised the ire of Israel's Islamic Movement leaders. Last week, the movement's heads... published a statement calling on "all respectable people from all communities and streams to stand up against preaching sexual deviance among our women and girls."

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The Islamic Movement statement also said, "We must not let this fatal cancer spread in our community."

The Southern Islamic Movement cooperated with Orthodox Jewish groups in protesting the Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem.

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[To be fair:] The Arabic-language newspaper affiliated with Hadash, Al Ittihad, last week published a harsh critique of the Islamic Movement's stand.