Freedom and Pride in Israel
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Anat Hoffmanis the Executive Director of th Israel Religious Action Center. |
As I write this, we are marking the 11th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, z”l.
Not since that time have I seen the levels of incitement we are witnessing now in response to next Friday’s Jerusalem March for Pride and Tolerance.
The incitement then – and now, unfortunately draws on fundamental religious ideology.
A flyer was distributed to hundreds of mailboxes in Jerusalem promising “NIS 20,000 to anyone who will bring about the death of one of those people of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Another flyer teaches how to make a Molotov cocktail with a chilling name: “A Schlissel Special” (named after Yishai Schlissel who stabbed three people at last year’s march and is now serving a 12- year sentence for attempted murder).
It is no less than tragic that the leaders of three religions have united, not on one of the million challenges facing the poorest city in Israel, but by the hate for the marchers.
The route of the Jerusalem March for Pride and Tolerance is symbolic: it runs from Jerusalem’s Independence Park to Liberty Bell Park.
Yet the way things are happening right now, we should be holding the “Shame and Intolerance March”, led by the chief rabbis, other religious leaders, the mayor, the police, and half a million silent Jerusalemites who are letting this incitement run wild.
The march is no longer a march of the gay and lesbian community, but the march of all Israelis who believe in freedom of expression and tolerance.
B'shalom,
Anat