GAY PRIDE DAY IN JERUSALEM CANCELLED
NOV 9 2006
In light of dozens of terrorist warnings and hundreds of thousands of expected protestors, the homosexual parade scheduled for Friday has been replaced by a rally. Only minor protests are expected.
While the Supreme Court prepares to hand down its response to four
petitioners who demand that the parade be legally stopped, the organizers have
essentially thrown in the towel on their own.
Fearful that the police would cancel the parade because of both increasing
terror warnings and unyielding religious-community threats to actively protest
it, the Jerusalem Open House - organizer of the parade - pre-emptively
canceled it on its own.
Instead, it will hold a closed event in the stadium of the Givat Ram campus of
Hebrew University, not far from the government complex.
Organizers of the religious protests convened afterwards to decide if and how
to continue the protests.
One rabbi from the Shas Party camp, Rabbi Eldad Shmueli, said that though he perceived a victory of sorts, "it is still our obligation to protest against a public display of rebellion against G-d.
True, it is not in the streets but it is in an open stadium, and the
desecration is nearly the same... We cannot be concerned with public opinion,
but rather with protesting against open rebellion against G-d's will."
Speaking with Arutz-7, Rabbi Shmueli explained how he sees the "Divine hand"
in evidence throughout the last few months:
"The left-wing public often threatens that when they finish with the Arab
problem and bring peace, then they'll start dealing with the religious
problems - which means to make war with us.
So we see that when they wanted to hold this international abomination
parade last summer, the war in Lebanon came along to stop them. And now again,
they were about to hold it - and suddenly comes this event in Beit Hanoun with
the 20 dead that compels the police to have to deal with terror threats. Not
to mention that some of them simply became afraid to march..."
The organizers of other protests were also convening this afternoon to decide
how to respond to the victory. Yaakov Shternberg of Jerusalem, one of the
organizers of the religious-Zionist protests, told Arutz-7, "Basically, we
have already won. But we may still hold a dignified mass protest in Kiryat
Moshe [a Jerusalem neighborhood just west of Givat Ram] in any event."
Afterwards, at approximately 4 PM, it was learned that the leaders of the
largest groups of protestors - hareidi-religious sage Rabbi Yosef Shalom
Elyashiv and Eida Hareidit head Rabbi Yitzchak Tuvia Weiss - had agreed not to
protest against the planned stadium rally tomorrow. However, their conditions
include: the release of all the hareidi protestors arrested this week, no
parade next year, and no signs of the rally outside the stadium. It is likely
that only the first condition will be fulfilled.
Meanwhile, the Komemiyut religious activist organization conducted a parade of
sheep, horses, dogs and donkeys in Jerusalem this afternoon, in protest of the
homosexual march. The theme of the parade is that bestiality and homosexuality
are both forbidden, in consecutive verses, by the same Torah (Leviticus 18). A
court petition by an animal rights' organization against the march was turned
down, but the organizers were warned to treat the animals without cruelty.
In the Supreme Court
Rabbi Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, head of the ZAKA organization; Chief Rabbi of
Rehovot, Rabbi Simcha HaCohen Kook; Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli
Yishai, head of the Shas party; and right-wing activist Baruch Marzel of
Hevron all filed anti-gay parade petitions with the Supreme Court this week.
Rabbi Kook burst into tears during Wednesday's proceedings.
Despite petitioners’ warnings that allowing the event would likely result in
violence and possibly bloodshed, the judges did not appear to favor any move
to relocate, postpone or block the parade.
Email readers: To see photos,
click here.
“The question of violence must be dropped because there is no way to 'find a
balance' between freedom of speech and violence,” said Judge Ayala Procaccia.
“The police will not give in to it and the court will not give in to it.”
Opposition in Israel, New York, and the Vatican
In addition to this week's daily and nightly violent protests by hareidi-religious
Jews in various communities around Israel, new voices were added Wednesday to
the massive groundswell against the homosexual march in the nation’s capital.
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky told reporters that he personally opposes the
parade, but noted that police would be able to protect the marchers if they go
ahead with the event. The mayor added, however, that the police would not be
able to stop the widespread protests, the violence, the widening chasm in
Israeli society and the property damage that will result from the protests.
The leader of Jerusalem’s Eida Hareidit Rabbinical Court, Rabbi Yitzchak Tuvia
Weiss, has contacted hareidi-Orthodox leaders affiliated with the Satmar
Hassidic sect in New York City to coordinate overseas protests. It was decided
that on Thursday at 3:30 PM, a protest would be held outside the Israeli
Consulate on 42nd Street in Manhattan. The protest is expected to draw tens of
thousands.
Satmar, based in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, is affiliated with the
Eida Hareidit and is considered the largest hassidic sect in the world,
numbering over 120,000 members.
The Vatican released a statement on Wednesday night, calling
on Israel to rethink permitting the gay parade.
The Vatican stated permitting the parade will be an affront to all three
religions -Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - and called on Israel to limit
freedom of speech to that which is correct.
Jerusalem Police Chief Ilan Franco announced last night that he would ask
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to delay the parade in view of the nationwide
security alert.
Israel police are operating on a Level 3 alert following the deaths of 19 Arab
civilians in an apparent IDF mishap during a retaliatory artillery attack
against rocket launching areas in northern Gaza. Palestinian Authority leaders
and terrorist organizations have called for Arabs to attack Jews both in
Israel and worldwide.
Police reported more than 80 terror alerts this morning, including 15 “hot
alerts,” referring to credible intelligence information of specific planned
attacks.
The alert status was expected to move to Level 4 Friday morning if the parade
was to have been held as scheduled.
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