Israel's Pinkwashing Turns Red in Jerusalem
Once again Jerusalem has been the venue for an attack on a Gay Pride march. Previously ultra-Orthodox opposition has confined the parade to a stadium and in 2005 the same religious lunatic, Yishai Schlissel, stabbed 3 people and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
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| Benny Gopstein and his religious fascists in Lehava demonstrate against the Pride march |
The anti-miscegenation group Lehava, which opposes Arab-Jewish liaisons and attacks Arabs caught in ‘Jewish’ areas, held a demonstration to protest the Pride demonstration. Note what its leader, Benny Gopstein said: They ‘oppose the stabbing of Jews.' Which translated means they don’t oppose stabbing Palestinians. This is the group that the Israeli state, courtesy of the new acting Foreign Secretary, the lunatic Orthodox Tzipi Hotoveli, helped fund.
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Israeli security forces reach for an ultra-Orthodox Jew attacking people with a knife during a Gay Pride parade Thursday, July 30, 2015 in central Jerusalem.Photo by AP |
Jewish Home Chairman and Education Minister, Naftali Bennett, a man who openly boasts of how many Arabs he’s killed stated that "Whoever did it harmed Jewish and moral values’. Which values might these be? The ones that allow the murder of over two thousand defenceless residents of Gaza? Or the slaughter of over 500 children? Or maybe the theft of their land?
Jewish Home has been one of the principal opponents of any legislative progress towards gay equality in Israel and has blocked civil unions and even equal treatment for gay partners in terms of tax credits.
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| victim of the stabbing |
Whilst the pinkwashing of Israel, as the most gay-friendly country in the world suffers a setback, we shouldn’t think of this as an isolated incident. It is the product of Zionism’s hatred of the other, gays included, whatever hasbara might have people believe on the surface. It is not the first instance of an attack on gay people in Israel because they are gay. In 2009 two gay people were killed in Tel-Aviv and last year a proposal to permit civil unions was also voted downby the Knesset .
Gay marriage is of course not allowed because that would be a fundamental breach in the refusal of Israel to countenance any form of civil marriage (which would allow Jews and Arabs to marry).
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| Attending a stabbing victim |
One of the few areas where there has been an advance is in the Law of Return. A gay partner of someone who is Jewish is allowed the same right to live in Israel and claim citizenship as someone who is married to a Jew. So there is a sort of equality when it comes to the oppression of Palestinians. Likewise you can be openly gay in the Israeli military.
Yishai Schlissel can rest content that unlike Arab ‘terrorists’ he is in no danger of having his apartment demolished as punishment for his actions. He is of course Jewish.
Tony Greenstein
6 Stabbed at Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade by Ultra Orthodox Jewish Assailant
By Yair Ettinger, Yarden Skopand Chaim LevinsonJul. 30, 2015
Suspect was convicted of attempted murder after stabbing three during 2005 Gay Pride Parade; he was recently released from prison.
Six people were stabbed at Jerusalem's annual Gay Pride Parade on Thursday. The suspected attacker was identified as Yishai Schlissel, the same man behind the attack on the 2005 parade, recently released from prison.
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| Plainclothes Israeli police detain an-ultra Orthodox Jew after he attacked people with a knife during a Gay Pride parade Thursday, July 30, 2015 in central Jerusalem. Photo by AP |
One woman was critically wounded, Magen David Adom emergency services reported, adding that two men were moderately wounded, and another two men and a woman suffered light wounds. Magen David Adom emergency services treated the victims on the scene, and then rushed them to three different hospitals in Jerusalem.
Police confirmed that the suspected stabber is Schlissel, a Haredi man from Modiin Ilit who stabbed three participants in the 2005 Gay Pride march. He was recently released from prison after serving a 10-year sentence.
Thousands of people took part in the march, which was heavily secured by police. In the Keren Hayesod Street, a haredi man broke into the crowd and stabbed several of the marchers. He was quickly wrestled down by police and arrested. Minutes after the stabbing, organizers and police agreed the march will go on and terminate in the agreed upon location in Liberty Bell Park.
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| Yishai Schlissel walks through a Gay Pride parade and is just about to pull a knife from under his coat and start stabbing people in Jerusalem, Thursday, July 30, 2015. AP |
Schlissel was sentenced for 12 years in prison for the 2005 attack after his conviction on charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault. However, in 2007, following an appeal, the Supreme Court mitigated his sentence to 10 years.
After his release, Schlissel returned to his hometown, where residents said that he distributed hand-written pamphlets in which he called on "all Jews faithful to God" to risk "beatings and imprisonment" for the sake of preventing the parade.
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| Stabbing victim |
The Judea and Samaria Police District said after the attack that they were not supposed to track Schlissel after his release, even though he resides in their jurisdiction, because his crime was perpetrated in the Jerusalem district.
Jerusalem District Police chief Moshe Edry said police didn't have concrete intelligence that Schlissel was in the area of the parade. "We were prepared for every scenario, but our perimeter was breached. This is a severe, hard incident, which required us to investigate to find out what fault cause this breach," he said.
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| A stabbing victim at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade, July 30, 2015.Emil Salman |
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the stabbing was a very serious event, and promised that the state will bring the full weight of the law against the suspects.
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| Religious counter-demonstrator at Jerusalem 2007 demonstration |
"In the state of Israel the individual's freedom of choice is one of basic values. We must ensure that in Israel, every man and woman lives in security in any way they choose. That's how we acted in the past and how we'll continue to act. I wish the wounded a speedy recovery,"he said in a statement.
Benzi Gopstein, chairman of the right-wing group Lehava, said that while activists from his organization staged a protest against the "abomination parade," they "oppose the stabbing of Jews."He called on the police not to allow the parade to take place in Jerusalem again.
Police had granted a permit to 30 right-wing activists to protest against the event near the Great Synagogue, not far from the marchers. Earlier on Thursday, Israel Police arrested right-wing extremist Baruch Marzel though they denied the arrest had anything to do with the city's annual Gay Pride Parade. Marzel is a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party and usually takes part in the annual protest against the parade.
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| Yishai Schlissel's arrest at the Gay Pride Parade on July 30, 2015 (left), and his arrest in 2005. |
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog called the stabbing a "heinous hate crime"and urged the police to allow gay pride events to go on. "Don’t give in to the enemies of everything that's good and beautiful about Israel,"he said in a Facebook message.
Education Minister and Habayit Hayehudi chairman Naftali Bennett called the stabbing a "moral crime that cannot be forgiven."
"Whoever did it harmed Jewish and moral values, and must be punished with the utmost severity. When events are clarified Israeli society must do some soul searching to understand how it has come to this,"Bennett said.
The Israeli National LGBT Task Force severely condemned the attack, saying that "they feel shocked that serious violent incidents such as this still happen in Israel in 2015."
The Anti-Defamation League extended its solidarity with the LGBT community. "We are shocked and horrified by this heinous attack on a parade that is widely attended and includes government representatives and political leaders," the organization said in a statement.
A stabbing victim at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade, July 30, 2015.