> Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 16:34:46 +0200
> From: Bryan Atinsky <bryan at alt-info.org>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] 20, 000 shekel (4, 559.92 USD) prize offerred to
> whoever kills gay person druing World Pride Parade
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>
> http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3273891,00.html
>
> Prize offerred to whoever kills gay person
>
> Escalation in haredi resistance to WorldPride Parade in Jerusalem:
> Flyers denouncing parade distributed in mailboxes promise NIS 20,000 to
> 'whoever causes death to one of Sodom and Gomorrah people'
> Neta Sela
>
> Haredis take on WorldPride Parade: In protest of the 2006 WorldPride
> Parade, scheduled to take place in Jerusalem on August 10, hundreds of
> letters, advocating "death to Sodomites", were distributed to Jerusalem
> mailboxes on Tuesday morning. They promised NIS 20,000 to "anyone who
> brings about the death of one of the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah."
>
> The letter appeals to residents of the capital: "don't let them teach
> our children their impure ways."
>
> The anonymous letter also suggests using Molotov cocktails against
> marchers and adds instructions as to how to make them at home. The
> explosives are nicknamed "Shliesel Special", in honor of the Haredi
> protester who disrupted the Jerusalem Pride Parade last year by stabbing
> three marchers.
>
> The letter goes on to say, "During this parade, 300,000 corrupt animals
> are anticipated to march through the holy city of Jerusalem, waiting
> avidly for the chance to put themselves on display before our children
> and our sacred Torah. They will try as hard as they can to defile as
> many of our innocent children as they can."
>
> A Practical Joke?
>
> Members of the 'Red Hand for Redemption', who penned the letters, are
> unknown among the Haredim. Sources in the community told ynet that, to
> them, the letters seem like more a teenager's "practical joke" and said
> that "this is not the way of a community in the midst of a struggle."
>
> Jerusalem city councilman Sa'ar Netanel (Meretz) said in response that
> "this is a worrying escalation and a license to kill. It needs to shock
> and appall everyone and cause everyone to ask himself whether he wants
> Jerusalem to take on the image of extremists who forget all humanity or
> to take on the image of marchers who only as for patience, tolerance and
> pluralism."
>
>
> Flyers in Meah Sha'arim
>
> While denying responsibility for the violent letters, the Haredi
> community has distributed formal flyers in protest of the parade. The
> flyers contain implicit criticism of Shas as "representatives of
> religious parties trying to appease the international storm regarding
> this issue by negotiating to change the location of this defilement to
> Tel Aviv."
>
> The flyers, hung all over the neighborhood, appeal to the Haredi
> community as well: "anyone with the ability to do so has the duty to do
> everything he can to smash the jaws of evil in any way that he can." The
> document was signed by the leading rabbis of the Haredi community.
>
> Flyers in Meah Sha'arim (Photo: Gil Yochanan)
>
> Monday night, Jerusalem city councilman Sa'ar Netanel (Meretz), arrived
> at Meah Sha'arim and was chased out by furious residents. Netanel, the
> owner of a gay bar who is working with the Open House to organize the
> World Pride events, explains that he arrived in the neighborhood with a
> camera crew "to document the anti-Parade flyers and the whole phenomenon
> in general."
>
> Netanel told ynet that he didn't think his arrival in the neighborhood
> would constitute a particular problem "because we arrived on a weekday,
> not during the Sabbath, so as not to create a needless uproar. It never
> occurred to us that anything would happen but, much to our surprise,
> within two minutes, Hassidic residents crowded around us and threatened
> us that, if we did not leave immediately, they would chase us out with
> stones. Since neither the crew nor I wanted to cause a commotion, we got
> into the car in order to leave." He continues, "Despite this, some of
> the Haredim tried to prevent our exit. In the end, we got out safely."
>
> Chased him out with shouts of 'Gevald'
>
> Aaron (fictional name), a resident of Meah Sha'arim tells that one of
> the residents recognized Netanel and immediately chased him out with
> shouts of 'Gevald'. "Meah Sha'arim is a lion's den," he warns. "People
> like him are forbidden to enter here. Why does he have to come
> specifically and on purpose to Meah Sha'arim?"
>
> Netanel describes the experience as frightening and adds, "If I would
> have imagined that it might end this way, I never would have gone there
> at all." But he wonders: "How is it that a person is forbidden to film
> in the street? My conclusion is that they have no god."
>
> The Meah Sha'arim neighborhood is considered the sanctuary of the Haredi
> community, many of whom are deeply opposed even to the existence of the
> state of Israel out of the belief that Zionism, because of its merging
> of Judaism and secularism, is heresy.
>
> In recent weeks, with August looming ever closer and the WorldPride
> events, including the pride parade, still scheduled to take place in
> Jerusalem as planned, rabbis declared a total war against the events out
> of their belief that homosexuality is an abomination.
>
> Haredi rabbis have stated repeatedly that they will prevent the Pride
> Parade at any price and have crossed internal party lines to join forces
> to prevent the march. Former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yossef himself, in a
> sermon last Saturday in Jerusalem, said that "on the day they announce
> (the parade), we'll have a demonstration, we'll protest for the honor of
> Torah and the sanctity of Israel."
>
> The Rabbi explained that the Torah commands the nation of Israel to
> behave modestly, and not as in "the repugnant land of Egypt" where
> "woman married woman and man married man". He referred to homosexuals as
> "evil abominations."