N.Y. rabbi arrives to fight gay pride parade to be held in J'lem

[Poll_Blind]

From Ha'Aretz, link mine:

Participants in the international gay pride parade scheduled to take place in Jerusalem next month are "planning a giant orgy in the Holy City and will reach the Western Wall," according to Rabbi Yehuda Levine, a New Yorker whose personal "holy war" against WorldPride 2006 has already brought him to Jerusalem seven times.

Levine claimed that he is here as the representative of about 1,000 American and Canadian members of the Rabbinic Council of America, in order "to stop the disgrace." The list of people he has met with in his quest includes Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, former chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, and Rabbi Tuvia Wess, who heads the Eda Haredit rabbinical court, as well as Knesset members, Muslim sheikhs and municipal officials.

--snip--

:puke:

  Fundies are obsessed by sex. This hardcore ultra-orthodox crrrap should not be confused with Reform Judaism which is "committed to the principle of inclusion, not exclusion".

PB

[MrPrax]

1. Chief Rabbi Amar calls on Pope

Chief Rabbi Amar calls on Pope to denounce Gay Pride Parade

Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI, asking the Catholic leader to condemn the annual International Gay Pride parade scheduled to take place in Jerusalem in August.

Amar asked the pope to "strongly and unequivocally come out against this terrible phenomenon, out of hope that a general protest from different religious leaders will awaken the lost hearts who are deceiving themselves and immeasurably harming their souls, and discourage the willful wrongdoer from cursing and corrupting the human way."

Religious and ultra-Orthodox legislators on Tuesday expressed their great dismay at plans to hold the annual event in Jerusalem.

...

Speaking at a special session of the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee MK Nissim Ze'ev (Shas) said "the gay parade in Jerusalem is a parade of swine on Temple Mount. It's a revolting parade of filth. Do you want to set Jerusalem alight? Do you want to force your sexual tendencies upon us?"

...
Committee chairman MK Ghaleb Mgadalah (Labor) pleaded before the organizers of the parade who attended the session to seriously consider holding it in Jerusalem in light of the fierce objections by representatives of the three monotheist religions.

Haaretz

From an earlier version (5 Jul 2006) of the same story... :shrug:
Emphasis mine

[Scurrilous]

2. Gay parade leaves Jerusalem?

Ultra-Orthodox politicians join Islamic Movement, chief rabbi enlists pope. Result: Homosexuals, lesbians from across globe to apparently not march in capital

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3272408,00.html

<snip>

"Political pressures have apparently worked: Ynet has learned that WorldPride 2006, the global gay pride parade, which was scheduled to be held next month in Jerusalem, is expected to move to Tel Aviv at the last moment.

Police officials confirmed that this was the apparent situation, but that a final decision has not yet been made.

Officially, sources at the police explained that the reason for moving the parade is the Jerusalem Police's fear in light of the event's size and complexity, which will make it difficult to secure it.

"Tel Aviv is more used to such events, and therefore it should take place there also this time," a police official said.

However, Israel's capital deals with complex local and international events on a weekly basis, so it appears that the reason for the change – if it indeed takes place – is more complicated."

[Poll_Blind]

3. Looks like it's true, the violent extremists have won...this time.

As I said in another message not so long ago, what passes for Liberalism in Tel-Aviv may be construed as anti-Semitism in Jerusalem. I'd followed some of the developments in Ha'Aretz but you can read more here. Including the $77,000 Jerusalem was ordered to pay recently Jerusalem Open House, a LGBT-rigths organization. The orthodoxy had claimed their would be violence, as there already has been, and LGBT took them at their word.

  There are so many different Israels packed into that one little country...

PB

[Phx_Dem]

6. what did they do to make themselves "violent" extremists?

Just curious.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. Religious inspired homophobia is by its very nature violent. -nt

[Scurrilous]

8. There was some violence at a parade last year:

Violence erupts at Gay Pride Parade (6/30/05)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1595167

[Phx_Dem]

9. thanks for the info.....nt

[IndianaGreen]

4. I wish the rabbi would get his sorry homophobic ass to the USA

Here is some more info about this unholy alliance of religious Jihadists, and a 2005 article of what most Jews think about them:

Archbishop Sambi, the Vatican ambassador to Israel, warned, "Making this parade would not only be an offence, but a provocation to the Jews, Christians and Muslims of Jerusalem and all the world."

"We know from the Holy Bible that God created Adam and Eve, but he didn't create Adam and Steve," said Armenian patriarch Aris Sharvanian, condemning that homosexuality is against the law of creation of God.

<snip>

Rabbi Yehuda Levine described the 10-day festival as "moral terrorism".

"This is nothing less than the spiritual rape of the Holy City," he said on yesterday’s news conference.

http://www.christiantoday.com/news/middle-east/christian.jewish.muslim.leaders.unite.in.campaign.to.halt.jerusalem.gay.festival/282.htm

LIBERAL JEWISH MOVEMENTS TURN OUT TO DEFEND GAY PRIDE PARADE IN JERUSALEM
by Daphna Berman, Ha'aretz, April 19, 2005

Leaders of Jerusalem's liberal Jewish movements voiced their support yesterday for the upcoming gay pride parade and denounced the coalition of Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders opposed to the event as a "desecration of God."

AdvertisementAt a joint press conference in the capital's Open House, representatives of the Conservative (Masorti), Reform and Reconstructionist movements said that the "unholy alliance" that has emerged between the unlikely allies, which includes both of Israel's chief rabbis, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Catholic Archbishop Pietro Sambi and leaders of the Muslim community, is a misuse of religious authority by people who should be "more concerned with justice" than with bigotry.

"I come here in the wake of the strange coalition of leaders that was brought together by intolerance, extremism and fanaticism," Rabbi Ehud Bandel, president of the Conservative Movement in Israel, said. "We must raise our voices, as Jews and as religious people, in support of another approach, based on tolerance, compassion and the dignity of human beings, which are the basis of the Torah."

<snip>

"We protest statements by clergy who spend their time hating, being dismissive and being intolerant," said Rabbi Na'amah Kelman, of the Reform Movement's Hebrew Union College. "Every person was created in the image of God, independent of race, religion or sexual orientation."

Also on the panel were Rabbi Amy Klein, director of the Reconstructionist Movement's seminary in Israel, Rabbi David Lazar, one of the first Israeli rabbis to officiate at same-sex weddings, Noa Sattath, chair of the Jerusalem Open House, and Rabbi Ayelet Cohen, from Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York, the world's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) synagogue.

http://www.masorti.org/media/04192005_h.html

[gratuitous]

5. Sorry Mr. Sambi

But I don't consider a gay pride parade to be a provocation, and I think I qualify as part of "all the world," as well as being a Christian. Maybe your little pointy hat is on too tight, and causes you to make such reckless statements? If you'd care to come to Portland next June, I'd welcome you to march in our local gay pride parade, and you can join the folks from my congregation. There are also a lot of Catholics who march in the parade, if you'd be uncomfortable with a bunch of anabaptists.

[choie]

10. gee, i wonder if this Rabbi

put as much energy into protesting against the war -
NOT!

[Scurrilous]

11. 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'

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3273891,00.html

<snip>

"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."

[darkism]

12. Just goes to show that there are violent extremists of every stripe. n/t

[Sapphocrat]

13. I may have my complaints about Israel...

...which I've NEVER been stupid enough to discuss on DU. But I have always -- ALWAYS -- looked to Israel as a beacon of enlightenment in the fight for equality.

I've been following this story in the Jerusalem Post over the past few weeks... and I've been heartbroken by what I've read.

I don't know how much more my heart can absorb before it breaks once and for all.

Why don't the fundies -- ALL of them -- have enough mercy to just kill us all and get it over with?

I give up. I'm just too broken to fight it anymore.

Just fucking kill me, fundies, whatever your gay-hating "faith," and chalk it up to some sort of "win". Just get it over with. Just throw me in the fucking ovens and get it over with.

[Behind the Aegis]

14. Please read this...

The right to be gay

By Haaretz Editorial

Two significant events related to the gay community are due to take place shortly in Jerusalem, the city of three religions and the capital of Israel. Over the next few months, an expanded panel of the High Court of Justice will rule on a petition filed by five male couples who wed in Canada and are asking the Interior Ministry to register them as married. In addition, the international Gay Pride parade is slated to take place in the city next month.

The five couples are demanding that the state register them as married, just as it registers heterosexual couples as married if they are wed abroad. The gay couples are arguing that the Interior Ministry's refusal to register them as married impinges on their right to equality. The state counters that Israel does not have a "suitable legal model" for recognizing same-sex marriages.

The institution of couplehood is constantly in flux. Once, polygamy was allowed; today, it is a criminal offense. Once, homosexuality was a criminal offense; today, Western culture recognizes the right of the individual to love someone of his or her own sex. In Israel, too, there has been significant progress, and same-sex couples have been recognized as partners in common-law marriages for the sake of issues such as financial agreements, inheritance and survivors' benefits.

We hope that the justices will further this trend in their ruling. But there is no doubt that ultimately, as Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has said, it is up to the Knesset to decide whether to recognize same-sex marriages, and it is up to the Knesset to legislate recognition of same-sex couplehood.


more...


This is an Israeli editorial.

(You can comment here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=221786&mesg_id=221786).