The violence in response to the gay pride parade in Jerusalem has already started. Reuters reports that a group of nutcases attacked the police in Jerusalem and started fires to protest the event, which is slated to take place November 11th.
Groups of ultra-Orthodox Jews torched trash bins and hurled stones at police in Jerusalem on Tuesday in protests against plans to hold a gay rights march in the holy city.
Three policemen were hurt and five protesters arrested in what Israeli media said was one of the most violent demonstrations in the city in recent times...
They overturned trash bins and set them alight, and blocked a main city road, throwing stones at police who came to disperse them, according to footage broadcast by Israeli television.
And it's not just the Jewish nutballs; they've got company:
Some religious Jews have vowed to disrupt the march expected to take place in mid-November, and there have also been threats of violence, in a dispute that threatens to create new tension between the Orthodox and Israel's secular Jewish majority.
An ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed and wounded three people taking part in a gay pride march in Jerusalem last year.
Some Muslim and Christian leaders have joined ranks with Jewish clerics in common opposition to public expressions of homosexuality in a city revered as holy by all three religions.
And as I reported yesterday, the Jerusalem police are considering caving in to these cretins rather than doing their job and arresting them.
- Log in to post comments
I'm Jewish, and seeing crap like this just sickens me to the bottom of my stomach. I guess it's proof that sadly we're all humans. :(
Some Muslim and Christian leaders have joined ranks with Jewish clerics in common opposition to public expressions of homosexuality in a city revered as holy by all three religions.
Nice to see that we've found a way to forge an alliance and common understanding among the fundamentalists of three of the major world religions.
Sigh.
-Rob
Yes, that's the way to prove your moral argument. Set things on fire and throw stones at people.
Then again, better than setting people on fire or stoning them. Not that I think these nuts won't give it a go.
This feels all to like anti-GLBT sentiment in the African American community here in the USA. What is about groups that having suffered a good deal of discrimination being so bigotted themselves?
AndyS -
This is something that makes me quite angry with the ADL (Anti Defamation Leauge), they have not, to my knowledge, ever spoken out against "ethnic cleansing" or outright genocides, that have happened over the past few decades in parts of Africa. One would think that an organization whos very essence is "never again" would be the first in line to fight genocide, yet it seems they really only care about keeping it from happening to Jews again.
The ADL is not a genocide watch group. They're a hate speech group. Genocides are the territoy of Amnesty International. As for AndyS's comment, I wish I could point to the relevent studies, but I know lots of people who study human behavior have discovered that people like to feel better than somebody. I'm ashamed of my co-religionists. Meshuggina!
DuWayne,
Yes. But they seem to have this sense that it should not happen to Jews-who-are-not-homosexual. It's a very narrow memory of the Holocaust.
Flying Fox,
Yeah. But, even so, they could utter a mild reproach, don't you think?
Ed,
I'm using your blog, and I hope you don't mind.
To all Israelis (or residents) currently in the country, who happen to read this blog, please show up on Friday. The march is supposed to start at 11:00 next Friday, but get to Jerusalem the night ahead or early that morning so that you are not stopped by road blockers.
We will not reward violence with cowardice. Whatever your sexual leanings are, or even your views on homosexuality, it is no longer relevant. This is a march to assert our right to speak and be protected from those who would shut us up.
Ofer
I try so hard to be pro-Israel, and this is how they repay me...
AndyS: Abuse is a learned behavior.
This pretty well sums up the religio-fascist mentality: "We have to abandon our values and slander and beat up and kill 'those people' 'cause they're all so depraved and have no values. They made us do it."
Here's some advice to add onto ParanoidMarvin's: chant "seig heil!" at the bigots and see if that makes them think at all.
Let me guess. You were the official joke adviser for John Kerry, and now looking for your next gig?
:-)
Raging Bee:
The one sure way to derail any argument in Israel, no matter how valid the comparison is, is to mention nazism in any fashion. The media would grab onto that picture instead of the pictures of the quiet march.