Anti-Gay Riots in Israel

Jewish extremists in Israel are so opposed to a planned gay pride march in Jerusalem that they are rioting in the streets. Someone even planted a bomb in front of a police station. All of this should qualify under standard definitions of "terrorism," but so far I haven't seen any news reports about "Jewish terrorists" attacking civil equality for gays in Israel. Why not?

The Haredi do not believe in a secular state and that all laws should be Biblically based. They frequently clash with non observant Jews who drive cars into their neighborhoods on the Sabbath.

In the Samarian settlement of Eli a homemade bomb was found at the doorway of a police station. The device, which had a sign attached to it saying "Sodomites Out!" was disarmed.

Earlier in the day members of other branches of Judaism also opposed to the parade met with representatives of Open House, the LGBT community center that puts on the parade, in an effort to maintain a dialogue. [emphasis added]

Source: 365Gay

I've written before about Jewish extremists in Israel attacking the right of gays to gather publicly and march just like anyone else. These people are so extreme that they are even willing to make common cause with Muslim extremists to oppose gay rights.

The government shouldn't ban public gatherings of a group simply because religious conservatives find that group offensive. Gays' right to gather should be the same as everyone else's right — I'll bet Orthodox Jews and Muslims wouldn't be banned from holding a parade if it offended gays or some other religious group.

Shlomo Amar, one of Israel's two chief rabbis, wrote that by ignoring religious laws prohibiting homosexuality the march "threatens the existence of the people of Israel in its land" and was more destructive than "Nebuchadnezzar and Titus," referring to two historical figures who sacked Jerusalem. ...

[Yehuda Levin, a rabbi from Brooklyn, New York] declined to condemn potential violence against marchers. "If you came into my house and attacked my wife and daughters and asked me if I intended to obey the law, you know what the answer would be," Levin said.

Source: International Herald Tribune

Isn’t it strange how problems in society always seem to be traced back to sexual purity? God doesn’t punish a nation for failing to feed the hungry, for failing to be sufficiently supportive of minorities, or even for failing to respect everyone’s equality and civil rights. Instead, God punishes a nation when individuals are allowed to engage in sexual behavior which religious leaders say God does not approve of. It’s hard to muster even minimal respect for a deity that cares more about what a few human beings are doing with their genitalia than about political and civil rights, hunger, or poverty.

The police and other government officials want the march stopped because of the dangers to human life:

A liberal lawmaker, Ran Cohen of the Meretz Party, deplored Dichter's suggestion that the perceived threat level could warrant cancelling the march. "It is incumbent upon the police to tackle those who would harm others for their beliefs," Cohen said.

But a former chief of Jerusalem police, Arieh Amit, appealed to the organizers of WorldPride 2006 to think about relocating. ... "Just as no one would dream of holding such an event in the Vatican or in Mecca, so should the considerations be regarding Jerusalem," Amit said. "It is not worth the risk of serious injury, or worse, just because someone insists on holding this event in Jerusalem rather than anywhere else in Israel."

Source: Axcess News

In effect, they want to validate the violent bigotry of religious homophobes by preventing an oppressed minority from going public about who they are and what they believe. Rather than protecting the civil and legal equality of gays, they want to take the easier route of giving in to terroristic threats from Jewish terrorists. That sends exactly the wrong message — and it's certainly not the sort of message that Israel in particular should be willing to send.

 

Note: parade organizers have decided to cancel it because of the violence. Things were so bad that Jewish terrorists tried to stone the mayor of Jerusalem in lieu of stoning all the gays they couldn't get to - and the mayor of Jerusalem is himself an Orthodox Jew who is anti-gay. Apparently, it's not enough to be just anti-gay unless you are also pro-terrorism and pro-violence.

 

Gay Rights, Gay Marriage, and Religion:

• Does Equality for Gays Threaten Religious Liberty?
• Does Religious Liberty Protect a Right to Treat Gays as Unequal?
• Is Religiously Motivated Discrimination Against Gays OK?
• Evangelical Christianity & Homosexuality
• Catholicism & Homosexuality
• Roman Catholicism on Gay Marriages (Christianity - Catholicism)