Haredim protest gay parade

10,000 haredim rally on Jerusalem street in protest of upcoming gay pride parade in city. Protestors confront police, one officer wounded

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3414125,00.html

<snip>

"About 10,000 haredim took to Jerusalem’s streets Sunday evening in protest of the gay pride parade scheduled to take place in the city Thursday.

About 1,300 police officers secured the scene of the rally. According to rally organizers, dozens of elite police unit officers dressed as haredim and were planted inside the crowd.

Rabbi Yitzhak Weiss warned participants of the rally, “Anyone who helps the evil will be judged.” Another rabbi told the crowd, “If we protest with all our hearts, maybe some of the evil will be dissuaded from doing their evil.”

During the demonstration, a few haredim torched a dumpster, and dozens confronted police forces after the rally ended. One female officer was wounded in the attack. Police began arresting the rioting haredim, and the rally is expected to be dispersed soon.

In recent nights, haredim were caught burning trash bins and stoning police officers in haredi neighborhoods. On Sunday afternoon, police caught four 10-year-old haredi children stoning private vehicles."

Wikipedia entry for Haredi Judaism.

Added I should have said "Jewish Talibangelicals", to make clearer my comparison with their Christian equivalent in the United States. My apologies.

they have not taken up arms, overthrown a government, beheaded people who they considered infidels, and done forced conversions.

Much more so than the US. The "penguins" as my friends sometimes refer to the Haeridi, are a very small but noisy minority.

In theory, the United States is even more secular; unlike Israel, we were not founded as a homeland for a religious group. But theory and reality, as we see all too well in America, are two very different realities.

While the Haredim are a small minority in Israel, they have long formed a key faction within the Knesset; no government has stood for long without their support. Becuase of this, the ultra-orthodox have wielded a tremendous amount of influence in creating laws to entrench religious doctrine into secular law.

secular Jews vastly outnumber the religious ones, be they orthodox or hareadi. As a percentage much higher than in the US.

I have yet to hear any complaints when I speak of the Talibangelicals, though. Like the Talibangelicals, the Haredim wish to turn their country into a theocracy wherein their flavor of religion is the only legal religion and that their religion serves as the basis for all laws. Unlike the Talibangelicals, the Haredim have been far more successful in their goals.

I believe it is a valid comparison.

by at least an order of magnitude. To lump them together as the same level of risk is either ignorant or dishonest at best.

Bush owes his election to the American Christian Right; there are a number of powerful American politicians who represent it; there are serious attempts to have a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage; and I understand that if even one liberal justice fails to survive for the next two years (which is possible, given the age of some of them), the religious right could end up having a quite scary influence on the laws for a generation to come. The Haredim do not have the same level of power in Israel.

. . have greatly restricted access to abortion, have shut down government funded stem cell research, have passed numerous state laws against same sex marriage, have successfully opposed hate crimes legislation in several states and are largely supportive of things like the war on drugs - just to name a few of their more notorious infringement on personal liberties in the US.

Also, they are in the US - where it is our business to do something about it if we don't like it. (I don't like it.)

How Israel recognizes the needs of its religious citizens in its secular laws is interesting but is hardly something US citizens have standing to condemn Israel for - unless perhaps there are other motives. I mean if you are so concerned about human rights in the ME perhaps you should go to Gaza and picket the new Hamas administrative offices on behalf of Palestinian homosexuals' and women's rights - you know, maybe organize a demonstration.

I dare say I am damned well entitled to condemn any religious group that screams about its right to oppress others and impose its brand of snake oil as the One True Brand, regardless of the religion or country.

. . anybody you want.

I was just wondering why you would spend so much venom to condemn a religious sect in Israel for the terrible crime of wanting to have more influence in their government (doesn't every group) - when within an hour or two drive from that parade route (that will take place) there are several Arab states that have expelled all Jews (not just the practicing ones) from their territory, who hang homosexuals when they find them and who stone women for adultry.

This, while gay people in Israel enjoy more protections and less discrimination than in almost any western nation - including the US.

I just find the whole "evil Israel" argument to be quite bizarre.

They are vocal and active and were gaining ground because of passiveness of non-orthodox groups (who thought why care about power in Israel when the movements thrive in the US?). Things are changing and with the advocacy groups like ARZA and other non-orthodox organizations things are beginning to move in the other direction. Non-orthodox groups are making great strides and are now very aggressive in showing power to counter this tiny but very vocal minority.

Probably not even the power of the American Christian Right.

:thumbsup:

of the people who have the courage to participate in that pride parade.

The religious aspects didn't come into the equation until later.

"Orthodox protesting the upcoming gay pride parade in Jerusalem set dumpsters on fire in the Mea Shearim neighborhood.

In the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot, Orthodox protestors hurled stones at a police patrol car. No one was hurt and no damages were caused."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3414668,00.html