Jerusalem Pride March: it just keeps getting worse
7Nov2006 Filed under: Homophobia, Israel, LGBTQ Author: Ariel(again, disclaimer: i work for CBST; the parts not expressly from them should be assumed to be from me):
To quote from the press release:
To protest this year’s planned march, several hundred Ultra-Orthodox Jews rioted in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood, lighting fires, overturning trash bins, and pelting police and motorists with stones, over the past week. Religious bigots from other faith traditions have expressed support for these protesters and voiced similar sentiments denouncing the JOH march. Over the weekend, the Israeli attorney general announced that the march will go one, regardless of threats of violence and death threats against parade organizers.
According to CBST’s Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, who was the North American Co-Chair of WorldPride, “Once again, hatred of gays and lesbians is uniting a group of people who usually have nothing good to say about each other. Religious leaders from fundamentalist Orthodox Judaism, Islam and Christianity are finding common ground in homophobia. They have turned a gay pride march into a war against gay people.�?
There is a Bet Din mulling a pulsa danura (a Kabbalistic curse that is evidently something of a rite of passage for Israeli politicos, essentially calling for the death of the person against whom it is chanted, although per Wikipedia it is of course controversial as to what it really is), there are riots, there are death threats on the head of the JOH staff. It is, in short, a mess of homophobia. So far, Israeli courts have continued to defend the march’s right to exist, but obviously, that will only do so much. 12,000 members of the police and the army are being called up to protect this; it is expected to be all out war.
CBST is spearheading a nationwide fund drive to help JOH defray costs — costs that include funding some percent of those 12,000 security workers, food and water in case the rally is surrounded, and field hospital arrangements. If you are interested in more information, or giving, go to their website: http://www.cbst.org; it’s right there on the front page.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/784453.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-4424,00.html
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/203/story_20333_1.html
(I am constantly forced to wonder what would happen if it was any other group making this kind of threat, but that’s another post in the making.)
3 Responses to “Jerusalem Pride March: it just keeps getting worse”
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daniel
November 7th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
fascinating details of the haaretz article:
although the reason for changing the route, officially, was to find
“an alternate route that would bypass the city’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods”,
in fact
“The initial route, which was to run from Independence Park to Bell Park, also bypassed ultra-Orthodox areas.”
the issue, apparently and un-surprisingly, is that the police aren’t actually willing to defend the march:
“Police nevertheless had said they would not be able to provide adequate security along the original route.”
‘unable to provide security’ is the usual euphemism for refusal. i’ve heard it used here in new york as a reason why permits aren’t issues, why demonstrations which don’t require permits are supposed to disperse, etc. always, coincidentally i’m sure, because the threatening counter-demonstrators are supporting the government’s opinion on the issue at hand.
and, interestingly, the meretz spokesperson, while not apparently saying anything quotable about the actual threats of violence (or suggesting that the police might use the same ‘pre-emptive’ techniques on the relevant rabbis that they use on palestinian religious leaders who make aggressive statements), is all het up about the kabbalistic curse… intriguing, and even a bit surprising, that meretz is more concerned with making metaphysical mutterings associated with mizrakhim prosecutable by abandoning the notion of free speech than with the actual physical threats to actual queers:
“Gal-On called on the police and the attorney-general to investigate those responsible for the pulsa danura discussion for possible criminal prosecution. ‘I recommend taking this with utmost seriousness, and to relate to this on the level of criminal offenses, not as just free speech.’ [...] ‘Brakes must be placed on free speech, when it is liable to turn dangerous, and we have seen that this is possible.’”
Ariel
November 9th, 2006 at 12:17 am
what really drives me crazy about this is that it is not as if the israeli government hasn’t got a lot of practice with quelling civilian disruptions. if they wanted to stop this, they’d go bulldoze some houses or impose a curfew or take a page from their palestinian playbook.
see my post i am about to write for more.
Jewschool » Blog Archive » Jerusalem Pride March: it just keeps getting worse by Ariel
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:10 pm
[...] Posted on behalf of Ariel: (As Mobius has done in the past, I’m posting this of the writer who’s asked me to do so since it’s not being covered in the US press) [...]