Jerusalem – Year After Attack, Thousands March In Jerusalem Gay Parade

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    More than 25000 march in the annual Gay Pride parade in central Jerusalem, under heavy security on July 21, 2016. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90Jerusalem – Thousands of people waving rainbow flags marched through downtown Jerusalem Thursday in the city’s annual gay pride parade in a defiant show of force a year after an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed a 16-year-old girl to death at the march.

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    The heavily guarded event comes against a backdrop of deep divisions in Israel between its secular majority and increasingly powerful nationalist and ultra-Orthodox camps that have spoken out forcefully of late against the LGBT community. The fault lines have been even more pronounced in Jerusalem, the ancient biblical city rich in religious history and tradition, and the gay parade has been an explosive point of contention.

    Unlike the raucous parade in the liberal Israeli city of Tel Aviv, which this year drew some 200,000 people, the Jerusalem affair is relatively modest. Even so, it has faced much resistance from ultra-Orthodox extremists who have deemed it an “abomination” and protested against it vigorously.
    Right-wing activists protest against the gay parade at the annual Gay Pride parade at a main street in Jerusalem on July 21, 2016. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
    The conflict reached its apex a year ago when ultra-Orthodox extremist Yishai Schlissel began stabbing participants, killing the 16-year-old girl and wounding seven others. That attack came shortly after he had been released from prison after serving a sentence for stabbing several people at the 2005 pride march.

    Police said Thursday that even behind bars, Schlissel has been plotting to further harm gay pride participants and that they have thwarted another attack he was planning. Police said Schlissel was taken for questioning from his cell and his brother, Michael, was arrested as an accomplice.

    “We have thwarted and prevented attempts to harm people during the march. The march will take place as planned and without change,” said Jerusalem district police commander Yoram Halevi. He did not elaborate.

    Police deployed in unprecedented numbers Thursday, with some 2,000 officers securing the route. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said 12 protesters were apprehended on suspicion of planning to disrupt the parade, with some carrying knives.

    Local media reported that about 25,000 took part in the march, an all-time high and five times as many as a year ago.

    In recent days, some Israeli rabbis have spoken out against the gay community. Protesters on Thursday held signs such as “Jerusalem is not Sodom.” Supporters of the gay pride march countered with messages such as “thou shalt not kill.”

    Jerusalem’s secular mayor, Nir Barkat, said this week that while the gay community has the right to march, he would personally forgo the event because it was seen as offensive to the city’s many religious residents.
    Opposition leader Isaac Hertzog pays his respects with his wife Michal at the site of where Shira Banki was murdered last year at the annual Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem on July 21, 2016. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
    Responding to criticism from the gay community, Barkat laid flowers ahead of the march at the site where 16-year-old Shira Banki was killed last year.

    “I understand the pain and criticism of those who do not agree with my decision not to participate in the parade,” he said in a statement. “I chose a different way to honor the memory of Shira Banki, a sweet girl who was murdered because of hatred.”

    Several lawmakers from across the political spectrum attended the march, which began with a wedding ceremony between two men under a traditional Jewish canopy.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a special statement in support.

    “They are marching for one principle: that all people are equal,” Netanyahu said. “The march today in Jerusalem is not just a march of the LGBT community. It is not just a march of a specific community. It is not a march ‘for’ or ‘against.’ It is a march of all of us. It is a march of together.”


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    23 Comments
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    bennyt
    bennyt
    7 years ago

    What a sickening photo!

    thegreatone
    thegreatone
    7 years ago

    All you religious frum/Litvish/Chasidic Zionist there you have it. Be upset now by what its is going on in the Holy Land.

    You are only upset now when you see Menivolim being proud by how they behave.

    And you didn’t get it when all real previous Gedolim where screaimg that it is not allowed to have a Jewish state before the coming of Moshicah.

    And you didn’t get it when they were screaming that it is not allowed to encourage Jews to make mass Alyiah to Eretz Yisroel.One of the reasons becuase to sin in the holy land is far worse than outside the Holy land.

    This is exactly what Herzl wanted. Herzl hated the Torah and hated Jews.He wanted to Christianize Jews as he writes clearly in his diary

    kenyaninwhitehouse
    kenyaninwhitehouse
    7 years ago

    Herzog’s grandfather was a tzadik but we see what Zionism has done in 2 generations they went from rabbanim to supporting toieva.

    7 years ago

    How is the “Jerusalem affair relatively modest”? It is disgusting to allow this shameless “affair” to sully the air of our holy city. Netanyahu is wrong. They are not marching “for one principle: that all people are equal.” They are marching to flaunt their licentious lifestyle to the world. Nobody is telling them how to live their lives. Just live it in private.

    DanielBarbaz
    DanielBarbaz
    7 years ago

    These people marching are not hurting anybody. All they want to do is live their lives. They are not forcing you or anyone else to do anything. If there is a problem….Hashem can straighten it all out after 120 years.

    And by the way # 2.. Do you think that your hatred and venomous words against fellow Jews is laudatory? You may be very machmir in your “bein adam l’makom” but there seems to be room for improvement in your “bein adam l’chaveiro.”

    Benny
    Benny
    7 years ago

    What a disturbing pictures of perversion on a big scale.

    kenyaninwhitehouse
    kenyaninwhitehouse
    7 years ago

    let them march in Gaza next time, maybe pedophiles should also march to showcase the “pride” in their lifestyle.

    RebelSheep
    RebelSheep
    7 years ago

    Of course these people came back in full force. That’s what happens when you stab.

    MayerAlter
    MayerAlter
    7 years ago

    No, Mr. Netanyahu this was not a march of all of us. It was a march of sodomites and those who support sodomy. Normal people have no part in this perversion.

    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    7 years ago

    Ha, look at those right wing activists in the pictures. Calmly protesting the toayva march. Had it been the other way around the fayglach would have been wreaking havoc.

    ayoyo
    ayoyo
    7 years ago

    I can’t imagine that any marcher in the parade was busy doing anything that could disturb another person. We arent’ from gaza or iran where people are killed for self expression. Why not try to have the laws of chillul shabbes be put into the laws of the govt. so that they can be killed as it says in the torah .

    7 years ago

    What an abomination n the Ir Hakodesh! It says in the Torah that in the times before Moshiach comes, the Z’nus will be in the streets, and this is it!!!

    RebelSheep
    RebelSheep
    7 years ago

    The females are not committing a capital offense.