A Gay Pride march in Jerusalem has taken place amid tight security, sparking fierce protests among the holy city’s religious communities.
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man was arrested for planning to bomb the parade, Israeli police said.
At least 18 other people were arrested during the march, which came after Israel’s High Court rejected an appeal by religious groups to ban it.
More than 7,000 police were deployed to secure the parade to prevent clashes.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said officers found an explosive device in the bag of the alleged bomb plotter.
“He admitted he planned on planting it on the route of the parade today,” Mr Rosenfeld said.
At least 15 people were arrested for throwing stones at police on Wednesday night after the court appeal was rejected…
The event, held in Jerusalem since 2001, has been denounced in the past by conservative Jewish, Christian and Muslim groups which share a view that homosexuality is an abomination.
Violent homophobia: The key to intra-fundamentalist harmony.
Not all the fundamentalists behaved badly, though.
I am proud of ultra-Orthodox rabbis and yeshiva masters, who, though appalled by the parade and what they see as the abomination of homosexuality, publicly and unequivocally forbade their students from taking part in violent demonstrations.
I am proud of a country that scorns the slimy Meir Kahane disciple Itamar Ben-Gvir when he screams at gay celebrants in a Tel Aviv parade “the Nazis should have finished you off.”
I am proud of the policeman on King David Street who, when asked by a passing pre-schooler about the flag with the rainbow colors, replied, “There are boys who love boys, and girls who love girls.”
I’m not sure how much praise people should get for essentially saying “hate all you want, just don’t injure anybody”, but then again if all the fundamentalists clerics in all the world’s religions took the stance of the rabbis (on everything), at least we might get to a state of tense standoffishness rather than, well, what we have now.
24 Responses to “Building bridges by hating gays”
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Amen!
I regularly read a newspaper called THE JEWISH PRESS, published in Brooklyn, New York, for the ultra-orthodox, and usually rabidly anti-Arab and and anti-Muslim. So much so, in fact, that it regularly publishes cartoon images of Arabs that strongly resemble the anti-semitic images of Jews that I saw in a book on DER STUERMER, a Nazi rag of the twenties and thirties, published by Julius Streicher. In his memoir, the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoess, decried Streicher and his type of propaganda as vulgar.
Yet there has been one occasion in whch THE JEWISH PRESS adopted a blandly benignant tone towards Arabs and Muslims. This came a year or so ago when the Orthodox Rabbinate and the Mullahs came down on the same side in deploring gay feet treading the hallowed soil of the sacred city.
Patriarchal monotheism is patriarchal monotheism, and its basic characteristics transcend the day to day.
I wonder how many of these folks got upset over the women in the Israeli Defense Forces who posed for Maxim.
Tense standoffishness would be a net improvement in Israel, I think… (Baby steps! Baby steps!)
I object to this being included under the category “assholes.” These folks and their fairy tale club are really well meaning folks who are just misunderstood. I propose we send Cowboy Diva and Celticdragon to negotiate with them.
I have to agree with Auguste. You don’t really get to be proud just for refraining from being actively evil.
OK, my last comment was probably uncalled for. But, i’m drunk and stoned and don’t care.
MAJeff, you came damn close to making me spew beer all over my monitor. I hope you are proud of yourself.
Sorry togolosh. I only would have been proud had your monitor ceased functioning. That’s the kind of power i want
~
Call me a German,but the idea of a Jew shouting “The Nazis would have finished you off!” at ANYONE,gay or not,makes mah bwain HUUURT!
resident_alien,
You should check out Ed Brayton’s site on Science Blogs. He’s had 3 or 4 posts about this issue, and there’s been this completely whacked out Israeli losing his mind about this issue. Apparently, there’s a “curse” that’s not really a curse on one of the commenters who took part in the parade. It’s been fascinating to watch.
[…] Jun 23rd, 2007 by expatbrian Bluebloggin has a great post on the proposed anti-immigrant fence to be built along the southern border….. C & L has the video of Sen. Dick Durbin criticizing the latest crime being attempted by Cheney….. Shaun at Kiko’s has the definitive Cheney photo and story….. Libby gets tough on the right-to-lifers and their insistence that they speak for women voters. ….Kathy at Stone Soup has the stats up on a National Health Care program here and here….. Pandagon tells us how the fundamentalists show their tolerance towards gays….. I agree 100% with Old Hippie and his posts on how the sheeple of America are allowing the destruction of their country. See his latest here and here.…. And last but certainly not least, Jesus General is doing a new music thing, inviting people to write in music selections in particular categories. He then posts the audio files. Todays category is Those who died to young. Go see it. […]
“I am proud of the policeman on King David Street who, when asked by a passing pre-schooler about the flag with the rainbow colors, replied, ‘There are boys who love boys, and girls who love girls.’ ”
That is so beautiful.
And so simple.
I truly do not understand homophobia, not at all. I can understand (which of course does not mean “validate,” “condone,” “support,” or anything short of utter condemnation — it means only that I can see where in human history they originate, and who benefits from exploiting them) racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, nationalism, all the others. There are material and cultural reasons for the development of these pathologies. But I just don’t get why in the world anyone would ever feel impelled to hate or fear love. We are a f*@#ed up species.
@ MAJeff:Thanks for the tip!Now,where’s that paracetamol…
Well, it is fair to say that dislike (if not hatred?) of fundamentalists unites people who otherwise would be off doing their own thing.
Believe me, Arun, if the fundamentalists would stop trying to fuck up the world, we’d be perfectly happy to ignore them.
Patriarchal monotheism is patriarchal monotheism, and its basic characteristics transcend the day to day.
Yeah, that’s why every branch of the Jewish faith is officially homophobic.
I’d note that these same bozos have, shall we say, ISSUES with women. Surprise, surprise.
mythago,
I defer to your superior knowledge of a subject I know little of, but I thought I’d heard of gay-positive religious Jews. Is there not one school of Judaism that can reconcile, at least to their own satisfaction, membership in the Jewish fold with gayness?
Just saying I wouldn’t be astonished either way.
Mark,
Here is a link that sums it up well.
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/ideas_belief/sex_sexuality/Overview_Homosexuality/Sex_SameSex_Powers.htm
Reconstructionists - Totally cool w/gay marriage and gay rabbis.
Reform - Support civil gay marriage, and allow rabbis to do same-sex weddings, but movement disagrees as to whether a same-sex wedding has the same “Jewish status” (i.e. legal status in Jewish law) as a straight wedding.
Conservative - Endorse “civil rights” for gays, but do not mention civil or religious same-sex marriage. Officially against same-sex marriage, but some rabbis perform them anyway.
Orthodox - no same-sex marriage or same-sex sex allowed. Period. Official Disclaimer provided: “the Orthodox Jewish community in no way condones discrimination against individuals on the basis of their private conduct”
The Conservative Jewish rabbinical schools (there are 2 in North America) have recently started accepting openly gay students to train to be rabbis.
I know of several Reform Jewish lesbian rabbis. They and their partners (and families, if they have children) are fully accepted within their communities. It’s seen as a non-issue.
I remember reading a story about throwing stones when I was a wee kiddie. Something about not doing so unless you’re without…something-something.Ye old negative cohesion*
*”The nazis also used negative cohesion, as one of their main ways of getting votes, this means that people came together to share their dislikes, or in this case people voted for Hitler because he hated the same thing as they did. Some people voted for Hitler because there was no one left to vote, most people hated the Weimar government and almost everyone was afraid of the communists so the only person left to vote for was Hitler. Fear of the communists did get Hitler a lot of votes, especially from the rich and the factory owners, the factory owners stood to loose everything if the communists got into power so most of them supported Hitler and some of them even funded him, so as to better equip his men.
Hitler also offered scapegoats for what was wrong with Germany, and these very much needed considering the amount of hardship that Germany had undergone, and it was nice to have someone to blame for it. These people included, the factory owners (which was subsequently dropped after they started to support the nazis), the Jews, Gypsies, the Black community, the rich in general, the Weimar government, the November criminals and the communists.”
Hitler’s rise to power
http://www.ciao.co.uk/Essays__Review_5564189
A review by Xeon72 on Essays
March 2nd, 2006
If only “Never Again” is more than a mantra and that we weren’t too discomforted from looking into how they /became/ the monsters they became from when they were /us/.
Considering that the Talmud has taught just this concept (good is not merely the absence of evil) for well over a thousand years, the Orthodox Rabbis should know better.
Still, urging their students to remain peaceful is farther than many fundie groups are willing to go today, so, small victories, nu?