Brody's Notes... Israeli Interior Ministry Grants Visa To German Partner Of Slain Gay Israeli Youth Counselor

Thomas Schmidt (on right) with Nir Katz & Nir's sister 

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) FEB 11 | The life-partner of an LGBTQ youth counselor murdered in the August 2009 shooting spree at the Tel Aviv centre of the Israeli LGBTQ Association, Bar-Noar, has been granted a reprieve from deportation.

It was reported that last week when Thomas Schmidt, 27, arrived at the Interior Ministry, he was informed that his visa had expired and would not be renewed. Schmidt, who has lived in Israel on a temporary resident status since 2004, had begun the requisite bureaucratic paperwork to register himself as the partner of an Israeli citizen in 2008. Israel does not permit same-sex marriage in Israel, but recognises same-sex couples who marry abroad. However it was less than a year later, when an unknown gunman conducted the shooting spree at the centre during a youth meeting which killed two, including Schmidt's partner, Nir Katz, 26.

The gunman has not been arrested in the murders and Israeli police continue to search for leads. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to bring the killer to justice, while other Israeli leaders vowed efforts to promote tolerance toward gays and lesbians in Israel.

Nirit Moskovich, an attorney from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, who serves as legal counsel for Schmidt, said that he has grown close to the family of his slain partner and does not maintain contact with his own family members in Germany, adding that he (Schmidt) desires to remain in Israel.

Sabine Hadad, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry told Aviel Magnezi, from the Israeli daily online news site Ynet, that Schmidt's case was brought in 2010 before a special humanitarian committee, which ruled that Schmidt could extend his stay in Israel for nine months only. According to Schmidt's attorney he was never informed of the nine month restriction.

As word spread of his plight, Schmidt won sympathy from the public as well as prominent Israeli's.

[via Ynet] An Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed in an interview with Ynet that the decision to deport Schmidt has been reversed, and that his new visa will last until his case is discussed and decided upon conclusively. 

Nitzan Horowitz, Israel's only openly gay lawmaker, wrote Israel's interior minister that "there would be no damage to the state of Israel if such a positive person as Thomas Schmidt, in light of the difficult and extraordinary circumstances, would stay with us here." 

Yonatan Gher, head of a Jerusalem gay community organization, harshly criticized the decision to expel Schmidt, saying that "while one lone person committed the hate crime" in Tel Aviv in 2009, "today the country is committing a hate crime."

Gher said that "Israel claims at every opportunity how open and accepting it is to the gay community. Now it has the opportunity to put those words into action." 

Ayala Katz, mother of Schmidt's slain life partner Nir Katz, told Ynet that her family received the news in a phone message, but added that they are waiting for a formal response from Schmidt's lawyer. She expressed hope that a permanent solution is soon to come. 

"We have been through enough," she said. "We wish Thomas to continue with his life. I have lost a son, I don't want to lose Thomas as well," Ms. Katz said.