Yishai urges Netanyahu to cancel Tel Aviv gay parade

Clearly the problem are religious extremists regardless of faith or denomination. The state must be atheist if civil liberties are to be preserved, as Lenin wrote: We demand that religion be held a private affair so far as the state is concerned. But by no means can we consider religion a private affair so far as our Party is concerned. Religion must be of no concern to the state, and religious societies must have no connection with governmental authority.

Last update - 19:55 10/06/2009

Yishai urges Netanyahu to cancel Tel Aviv gay parade

By Haaretz Service

Interior Minister Eli Yishai has called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai to cancel the city's upcoming Gay Pride Parade, Channel 10 reported on Wednesday.

The Shas Chairman sent a letter, signed by a number of Tel Aviv rabbis and religious members of Knesset, urging the city to rethink its decision to hold the parade on Friday.

The letter was submitted by attorney Doron Shmueli, and signed by National Union MK Uri Ariel, United Torah Judaism MK Menachem Eliezer Moses, Tel Aviv council members as well as the city's chief rabbis.

Even if the event would go on as planned, said the letter, the city must "qualify the sexually oriented content and not allow event organizers a free hand to do whatever they like."

Yishai objected to last year's Gay Pride Parade as well, in a letter addressed to then prime minister Ehud Olmert and the chief of police.

In that letter, Yishai accused parade organizer of planning "acts of abomination" and said it must be stopped.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1091871.html

It was not all that long ago--75 years--that it was the Jews who, in Hitler's Germany, were the "unpopular minority."

Seems they've learned nothing.

and it was the ultra-Orthodox that opposed a memorial at Auschwitz to the memory of the gay Jews murdered by the Nazis. Bigotry from the victims of bigotry surely takes the cake!

lately?

on how to do it when THEY get into power.

Yes, the Jews, as the sat waiting to be gassed, cut up, or watch those and other actions being preformed on their own kind, were so forward thinking. They were thinking, not "how the fuck do we get out of here," but "how can we get a state, then treat faggots the same way." Dirty, nasty kikes, always one step ahead. They didn't care about themselves or their loved ones' fates, just how they could inflict the same on homos 60 years later. Oh but wait, they aren't sending GLBT to "the showers," they are wanting to prevent a march/parade. I can see how those are one and the same! :eyes:

BTA- Isn't the comparison more apt between fundamentalist religious groups? We have Falwell, Dobson and many others of that sort, here too.

............
>>
Israelis marching in the tenth annual Gay Pride Parade in Tel Aviv on Friday. (AP)


http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/990879.html

Last update - 08:00 08/06/2008


Thousands attend 10th annual Gay Pride parade in Tel Aviv

By Haaretz Service

Tags: Tel Aviv, Gay Pride parade

Thousands of people attended the tenth annual Gay Pride Parade in Tel Aviv Friday, to celebrate the gay community's struggle for equality and to christen the center for the gay community situated in the city's Meir park (Gan Meir).

"The center symbolizes an amazing turning point in the history of the gay community, and our activities will now have fertile ground from which to grow and flourish," Army Radio quoted one of the parade participants as saying.

The Tel Aviv municipality donated NIS 250,000 for the event, which was scheduled to commence at 12 P.M. at Gan Meir. The parade was then to head out toward Bograshov Street, turning onto Ben Yehuda Steet, then Ben Gurion Boulevard and finally ending at Gordon beach, where a host of musicians such as Ivri Lider, Maya Buskila and Keren Peles were set to perform followed by a party on into the night.
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Unlike similar events in the more religious capital, which have sparked bitter right-wing protests and violent demonstrations, the Tel Aviv parade faced little resistance. "The parade here is different from the one in Jerusalem," Army Radio quoted another parade participant. "Here, we celebrate the freedom and rights that we have - it's a festival, a happening, it's a joy. In Jerusalem, it's simply a demonstration for human rights."

Several confrontations did take place however. Army Radio reported that a handful of extreme right-wing activists confronted the revelers holding signs reading "Animals - you have nothing to be proud of." Shas Party Chairman Eli Yishai also voiced his objection to the parade in a letter addressed to the prime minister and the police commissioner, saying the parade will include "acts of abomination" and that it should be stopped.

Army Radio also quoted Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On's response to Yishai's efforts, saying "their ignorance and dark beliefs take as back to the Middle Ages. It is intolerable that the religious and Haredis tell us what to believe in and how to live. Now they're trying to forbid the gay community from parading in the streets."<<

.......

Please explain.

I am really fucking sick and tired of anti-Semitic and homophobic bullshit posted at this site. NEWSFLASH...Israel isn't "THE JEWS." I know this will come as a shock to many posters here, maybe even yourself.

NEWSFLASH: Groups which were or are victims of discrimination doesn't mean THEY don't do the same (Blacks/Latinos! and prop8).

NEWSFLASH Israel is MORE progressive in issues of LGBT issues than the US and MANY other countries!

Finally, NEWSFLASH GAYS were also among the "unpopular minority" in Nazi Germany (see my fucking avatar), and I know plenty of GLBT folks who are bigots (refer to "newsflash" #2)!

..the post specifies the PRE-holocaust period of time in Germany, circa 1935, when Hitler and the Nazi party were coming into power. It was the exploitation of the general population's hatred for German Jews and other undesirable minorites that allowed the Nazi party to build its power base (Sound familiar -- this is exactly the same political strategy used by Rove and Company in building the Republican base.) I am referring to the period of time in Germany when it became legally sanctioned, through the machinations of the Nazi Party, to openly discriminate against German Jews:



No one--myself nor any of the other posters--said anything about the death camps. This is about the early history of Hitler and Nazi party's rise to power and about the "undesirable minorities" who were targeted and politically exploited as a means of achieving power. And, you're correct in that not all Jews are Israeli, but it is also a fact of the mass immigration of European Jews to Palestine-Israel -- fleeing the horrors of the holocaust -- has left a major legacy to Israelies, i.e., the memory of Nazi persecution on Israeli Jews.

If you can't see the parallels between the ways Jews were treated during the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party and the way LGBT were and continue to be treated during the Bush/Cheney/Rove rise to power, then you are wearing blinders...

And isn't it always those who most virulently resent gays who dare to compare their histories of discrimination with that of Jews and blacks the first to scream charges of antisemitism and racism?

Eliyahu "Eli" Yishai (Hebrew: אליהו "אלי" ישי‎, born 26 December 1962) is an Israeli politician and head of the Shas party.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Yishai

.......

Shas (Hebrew: ש״ס‎) is a political party in Israel, primarily representing Haredi Sephardi and Mizrahi Judaism

Shas was founded in 1984 prior to the elections in the same year, through the merger of regional lists established in 1983. A Sephardi offshoot of the largely-Ashkenazi Agudat Yisrael, it was originally known as The Worldwide Sephardic Association of Torah Keepers.

Shas is a strong advocate of Halakha playing a pivotal role and providing a fulcrum for the operation of the state and its identity, such as laws prohibiting various activities on the Shabbat. Shas has a socially conservative agenda, while also supporting generous welfare payments, especially for yeshiva students, as well as supporting the Baal Teshuva movement, through which it has encouraged many non-Orthodox Israelis of Sephardic and Mizrahi-Jewish heritage to adopt an ultra-Orthodox Jewish lifestyle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shas
......

Haredi or Chareidi<1> Judaism is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism. A follower of Haredi Judaism is called a Haredi (Haredim in the plural). In non-Jewish circles, it is sometimes referred to as Ultra-Orthodox Judaism,<2><3><4> a term never used by those involved, who use the word Ḥaredi or other expressions instead.

Haredi (חֲרֵדִי) is derived from charada, meaning fear or anxiety, which in this context is interpreted as "one who trembles in awe of God" (cf. Isaiah 66:2, Isaiah 66:5).<5>

Haredi Jews, like other Orthodox Jews, consider their belief system and religious practices to extend in an unbroken chain back to Moses and the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. As a result, they regard non-Orthodox streams of Judaism to be unjustifiable deviations from authentic Judaism.<6>

Jewish law, known as halacha is considered a set of God-given instructions to effect spiritual, moral, religious and personal perfection. As such, it includes codes of behavior applicable to virtually every imaginable circumstance (and many hypothetical ones), which have been pored over and developed throughout the generations in a constantly expanding collection of religious literature. An early written compilation of halacha, the Talmud, is considered authoritative.

Halacha is a guide for everything the traditional Jew does from the moment of awakening until the moment of sleep. It is a body of intricate laws, combined with the reasoning on how such conclusions are reached. Halacha incorporates as rules many practices that began as customs, some passed down over the centuries, and an assortment of ingrained behaviors. It is the subject of intense study in religious schools known as yeshivas.

Lifestyle and family
Haredi life is very family-centered. Depending on various factors, boys and girls attend separate schools and proceed to higher Torah study, in a yeshiva or seminary respectively, starting anywhere between the ages of 13 and 18. A significant proportion of young men remain in yeshiva until their shidduch, a marriage often arranged through facilitated dating. Many also continue study in kollel (a Torah study institute for married men) for many years after marriage. In many Haredi communities, studying in secular institutions is discouraged, although some have educational facilities for vocational training or run professional programs for men and women. Most men, even those not in kollel, will make certain to study Jewish texts (collectively referred to as Torah) daily. Families tend to be large, reflecting adherence to the Torah commandment "be fruitful and multiply" (Book of Genesis 1:28, 9:1,7).

Haredi poskim (authorities in Jewish law) forbid television and films, reading secular newspapers and using the Internet for non-business purposes. They feel that mobile phones should be programmed to disable internet and other functions that could influence their users in undesired ways, and most companies in Israel now offer basic cell phones with limited capabilities to accommodate Haredim.<7><8> However, it appears that many Haredi people use the Internet, as evidenced by the large number of participants in "Haredi chat rooms".<9><10>

History

Modern origins
For several centuries before the Emancipation of European Jewry, most of Europe's Jews were forced to live in closed communities, where their culture and religious observances were preserved, no less because of internal pressure within their own community than because of the refusal of the outside world to accept them. In a predominantly Christian society, the only way for Jews to gain social acceptance was to convert, thereby abandoning all ties with one's own family and community. There was very little middle ground, especially in the ghetto, for people to negotiate between the dominant culture and the community.

This began to change with the Haskalah ("Enlightenment") and calls by some European liberals to include the Jewish population in the emerging empires and nation states. For some Jews, the meticulous and rigorous Judaism practiced in the ghetto interfered with the new opportunities. They held that acceptance by the non-Jewish world necessitated the reformation of Judaism and the modification of those principles deemed inconsistent with this goal. In the words of a popular aphorism coined by Yehuda Leib Gordon, a person should be "a Jew in the home, and a mentsh (good person) in the street."

Other Jews argued that the division between Jew and gentile had actually protected the Jews' religious and social culture; abandoning such divisions, they argued, would lead to the eventual abandonment of Jewish religion through assimilation. This latter group insisted that the appropriate response to the Enlightenment was to maintain strict adherence to traditional Jewish law and custom to prevent the dissolution of authentic Judaism and ensure the survival of the Jewish people.

The former group argued that Judaism had to "reform" itself in keeping with the social changes taking place around them. They were the forerunners of the Reform movement in Judaism. This group overwhelmingly assimilated into the surrounding culture.


Hasidic boys in Poland, circa World War I.Even as the debate raged, the rate of integration and assimilation grew proportionately to the degree of acceptance of the Jewish population by the host societies. In other countries, particularly in Eastern Europe, acceptance (and integration) was much slower in coming. This was especially true in the Pale of Settlement, a region along Russia's western border including most of modern Poland, to which Jewish settlement in Russia was confined. Although Jews here did not win the same official acceptance as they did in Western and Central Europe, that same spirit of change pervaded the air, albeit in a local variant. Since it was impossible to gain acceptance by the dominant culture, many Jews turned to a number of different movements that they expected would offer hope for a better future. The predominant movement was socialism; other important alternatives were the cultural autonomists, including the Bund and the Zionists. These movements were not neutral on the topic of the Jewish religion: by and large, they entailed a complete, not infrequently contemptuous, rejection of traditional religious and cultural norms.

Those who opposed these changes reacted in a variety of ways.

In Germany, the usual approach was to accept the tools of modern scholarship and apply them in defence of Orthodoxy, so as to defeat the Reformers at their own game. One proponent of this approach was Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, who coined the slogan Torah Im Derech Eretz (Torah with civilization) and led a secession from German Jewish communal organizations to form a strictly Orthodox movement with its own network of synagogues and schools, known as Adath Israel. His movement still has followers, and their standard of observance is very strict, but because of their acceptance of secular learning they are not normally classified as Haredim. Some Galician scholars, such as Zvi Hirsch Chayes, followed a somewhat similar approach.

A closer precursor to today's Haredi Judaism was the Chasam Sofer, Chief Rabbi of Pressburg (now Bratislava, Slovakia). In response to those who stated that Judaism could change or evolve, Rabbi Sofer applied the term chadash asur min ha-Torah, "The 'new' is forbidden by the Torah," in order to have textual support for his movement, the term originally referring to new (winter) wheat that had not been sanctified through the wave offering culminating in the Counting of the Omer in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Chasam Sofer held that any movement expressing the need to "modernize" Judaism, or expressing the dubiety of the verbal revelation of the Written and Oral Torah, were outside the pale of authentic Judaism. In his view the fundamental beliefs and tenets of Judaism should not, and could not, be altered. This became the defining idea behind the opponents of Reform and in some form, it has influenced the Orthodox response to other innovations.

In Eastern Europe there was little in the way of organised Reform Judaism, but the advocates of modernity came under the umbrella either of the Haskalah or of political movements such as Bundism or Zionism. The traditionalist opposition was generally associated either with the various Hasidic groups or with the growing network of yeshivas among the Lithuanian Jews, some of which (e.g. the Volozhin yeshiva) even closed rather than comply with the Russian Government's demand for secular studies to be incorporated into the curriculum.

In Germany the opponents of Reform rallied to Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and his Adath Israel. In Poland Jews true to traditional values gathered under the banner of Agudas Shlumei Emunei Yisroel.<15> The decisive event came in 1912 with the foundation of the Agudas Israel movement, which became a potent political force and even obtained seats in the Polish sejm (parliament). This movement contained representatives of several of the streams of traditionalism already mentioned. The traditionalists of Eastern Europe, who fought against the new movements emerging in the Jewish community, were the forebears of the contemporary Haredim.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haredi
.........

..in my post that it is the conservative religious and political factions of Israel I was addressing.

Do I need to remind you this is about a pride parade in ISRAEL?

"No one--myself nor any of the other posters--said anything about the death camps." Well, well, neither did I. Odd that. However, one poster made it VERY clear because where else were the Jews in Europe except in the death camps (taking notes).

"If you can't see the parallels between the ways Jews were treated during the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party and the way LGBT were and continue to be treated during the Bush/Cheney/Rove rise to power, then you are wearing blinders..."

And you are so wrong it is scary sad. Gays are NOT forbidden to congregate. Their business are NOT marked and boycotted by the general populace. Gays are not being rounded up (though I am sure some would love that). Learn history before you start making false comparisons.

"And isn't it always those who most virulently resent gays who dare to compare their histories of discrimination with that of Jews and blacks the first to scream charges of antisemitism and racism?"

That doesn't even make sense. BTW, I am well aware of the treatment of gays by the Nazi regime...I taught it! That's right, as the president of a GLBT group in SOUTH CAROLINA I taught, to many of them for the first time, the history of the hate leveled against gays by the Nazis. Do view my avatar. Do you know what the fuck it means? I am guessing not.

doncha know.

It's a religious oligarchy, and by definition oligarchies are not progressive. On the bright side nearly every gay man and woman in Israel has served in the military.

That makes it a bit harder to start shoving sabras around -

But, considering I have seen your other posts, it is not shocking to me.

with me.

But considering I have seen your other posts, you never fail to disappoint. Shows how little you know - ???? Are you sabra or just wanna be?

Wannabe it is.

But I do enjoy pointing out your ignorance. Makes me all tingly in the naughty parts.

Or do you just make assertions without detail?

The only thing making you tingly in your naughty parts (shudder) is saddling up your latex friend with Ben-Gay instead of lube.

Contrary to your ignorant post.

My partner of 7.5 years, still yet to be recognized by the US, is many things, but, latex, no. Then again, that also probably brings you a special kind of joy, doesn't it?

Wishful thinking aside, some people in Israel are not, and clearly those people are having an influence too. It all goes back to recognizing religious authority in government. I really don't qualify you as a blind optimist so much as blind.

See the real world silly child. That and you always come swinging your business at me as if I'm the enemy, and as if your business was worthy all the drama, I verbally knock you around as you deserve and then you slink off. Save yourself some time and get to the slinking off part.

Why are you such as ass? Can't you be decent and friendly for one second? Rudeness begets rudeness - what's your excuse? You could have responded with any other tack but you chose to be an ass.

the part you don't get is that to have a stronger Israel you must be willing to criticize what is. Your refusal to see anything but your own hubris and offense on all topics Israel makes you a liability in that battle, not an asset. You are shrieky and querelous and willing to make enemies long before you ask the first question. You're combative -- always. You're not a good or pleasant person if the lack of fairness in your responses is any indication of who YOU are. At forty you aren't nearly the oldest lizard in this lair.

You perennially don't get it. Also, you have a short memory - we have gone round and round and round over the years, and I still have the posts to prove it.

All you have to do is be nice. It's amazing how much more productive a conversation one can have if one asks clarifying questions without posing and spouting and using words like "bigot".

I'm embarrassed for you but we all have bad days.

maybe that's why our interchanges are frustrating. I think your heart is in the right place but your methods among your fellows here are not. Why you think I'm the enemy is beyond me, but on the subject of combativeness I don't have patience for provocation.

I'm a pragmatist, with everything that entails. Sorry it rubs you the wrong way but I'm not trying to provoke you either.

backwards...I think this mayor would like to tell them to Phuck Off.

In response to Shas chairman's demand to cancel gay march, Mayor Ron Huldai says parade an example of 'openness that will influence and pave the way for other places in Israel'. Gay activist: Yishai's comment shame the State

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3729819,00.html

<snip>

"Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai stressed Thursday that he would not let any outsiders break the city's tradition of holding an annual Pride Parade. He said this in response to Shas Chairman Eli Yishai's demands to have the parade, scheduled for Friday, cancelled.

Huldai said support of the gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders will only grow. "I greet the gay community on its holiday, that has been expanded to an entire month in the first Hebrew city's 100th year, and offers cultural and artistic events in the community.

"Tel Aviv – Jaffa, that last year opened the municipal community center for the city's gay community, will continue to provide a warm home and example of tolerance and openness that will influence and pave the way for other places in Israel," he said.

Certain that the bond with the gay community is only good for the city, Huldai said, "One of Tel Aviv – Jaffa's main characteristics is the diversity of different groups and communities that live in the city and feel at home in it.

"The values of tolerance and pluralism, that have been engraved in the first Hebrew city's banner for many years now, are not just nice words to boast of, but are a true belief that every group and community in the city should be given the place, space and option of expressing itself."

:applause:

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_rights_in_Israel

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights in Israel are considered the most tolerant in the Middle East.<1> In November 2005, a groundbreaking court decision in Israel ruled that a lesbian spouse could officially adopt a child born to her current partner, by artificial insemination from an anonymous sperm donor; this ruling was despite protests by the Orthodox Jewish parliamentary parties (which are a minority). Common law marriage has already been similarly achieved (which grants most of the official marriage rights to the spouse), but full official same-sex marriage has not yet been sanctioned. However, same-sex marriages performed elsewhere are recognized.

Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Cyprus are the only countries in the Middle East<2> where homosexuality between consenting adults in private is not illegal and homosexuals are not persecuted under law. In most other Middle Eastern countries homosexuality is illegal, often punishable by flogging and even hanging. Until 2007, Israel was the only country in Asia where homosexuals were protected by anti-discrimination laws.<3> Israel remains the only country in the Middle East to provide such legal protection.

Out Magazine has named Tel Aviv "the gay capital of the Middle East."<4>

Former laws against homosexuality
The State of Israel inherited its sodomy or "buggery" law from British influence, but there is no record that it was ever enforced against homosexual acts that took place between consenting adults in private. In 1963 the attorney general declared that this law would not be enforced; however, in certain cases defendants were found guilty of "sodomy" (which according to Israeli law includes oral sex as well), apparently by way of plea bargains: those defendants had been indicted for more serious sexual offences. There were also cases of soldiers tried for homosexual acts in military courts. The ban on consensual same-sex sexual acts was formally repealed by the national legislative assembly Knesset in 1988.<5> The age of consent for both heterosexuals and homosexuals is sixteen years of age.


Recognition of same-sex relationships
Main articles: Same-sex marriage in Israel and Civil unions in Israel
Israeli law recognizes same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. It is the only country in the Middle East and all of Asia to do so. It does not, however, allow same-sex couples to marry on Israeli soil. It should be noted that civil marriage doesn't exist in Israel for heterosexual couples, either, and therefore no marriage not sanctioned by religious authorities can take place within Israel. (This restriction forces not only gay couples, but also all mixed-religion heterosexual couples and any person who wishes a non religious marriage, to marry outside the country.)

The State of Israel allows foreign partners of its homosexual citizenry to receive residency permits. The Civil Service Commission extends spousal benefits and pensions to the partners of homosexual employees. The Israeli State Attorney's Office has extended the spousal exemption from property-transfer taxes to same-sex couples. Israel's attorney general has granted legal recognition to same-sex couples in financial and other business matters. Attorney General Meni Mazuz said the couples will be treated the same as common-law spouses, recognizing them as legal units for tax, real estate, and financial purposes. Mazuz made his decision by refusing to appeal a district court ruling in an inheritance case that recognized the legality of a same-sex union, his office said in a statement. Mazuz did differentiate, however, between recognizing same-sex unions for financial and practical purposes, as he did, and changing the law to officially sanction the unions, which would be a matter for parliament, according to the statement.

The city of Tel Aviv recognizes unmarried couples, including gays and lesbians, as family units and grants them discounts for municipal services. Under the bylaw, unmarried couples qualify for the same discounts on day care and the use of swimming pools, sports facilities, and other city-sponsored activities that married couples enjoy.

On January 29, 2007, following a Supreme Court ruling ordering them to do so, Jerusalem registered its first gay couple, Avi and Binyamin Rose.<6>


Adoption and family planning
See also: LGBT parenting

On January 10, 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that a lesbian couple is able to legally adopt each other's children. During the past 15 years that Tal and Avital Yaros-Hakak have lived together, they have had a total of three children. The couple petitioned the Tel Aviv Family Court for the right to formally adopt each other's children in 1997, but the request was rejected because Israel's adoption law had no provisions for same-sex couples. The couple appealed. While they failed to get a favorable ruling in the Tel Aviv District Court, the Supreme Court accepted the case. Citing Article 25 of the Adoption Law, the Yaros-Hakaks argued that the law allows for "special circumstances" for adoption when it is for the good of the child, even if the child's parents are still alive. The only condition is that the person seeking to adopt be single. The couple argued that since the state does not recognize same-sex marriage, they are single by law. The Yaros-Hakaks added that adoption was in the best interest of the children if one of their natural mothers should die. The Supreme Court of Israel agreed, ruling 7-2 in favor of the couple.

Following the supreme court ruling, a lesbian couple was allowed to adopt each other's biological children on February 12, 2006. Before that, gay partners of parents were granted guardianship over their partner's children.

On March 10, 2009, the Tel Aviv family court ruled that former Knesset member Uzi Even and his life partner, Amit Kama, can legally adopt their 30-year-old foster son, Yossi, making them the first same-sex male couple in Israel whose right of adoption has been legally acknowledged.<7>


Military service
See also: Sexual orientation and military service
Unlike many other democratic nations, the armed forces of Israel allow service without any distinction based on sexual orientation. Since 1993, homosexuals have been allowed to openly serve in the military, including special units.

In 1956, two soldiers were put on military trial on charges of sexual intercourse 'against nature' and were supposed to be put in military prison for one year, but the punishment was reduced on the grounds that 'homosexuality is a disease, not a crime'. Until the late 80s, the commanders had to report to the military psychiatric department about homosexual soldiers. The vast majority of psychological and psychiatric organizations in Israel and worldwide no longer consider homosexuality to be a disease or defect.

Israeli youth who are exempt from military service can volunteer for national service. Since June 2006, The Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgenders in Israel (Agudah) qualifies as such a service.<8> However, a steadily increasing number of gay recruits do full military service, often in combat units. The Ma'ariv newspaper reported that one of the largest units in the Israeli army, an intelligence processing unit, is well known for the large number of uncloseted LGBT soldiers serving in it.

In a poll conducted in 2006, half of gay soldiers were found to be harassed during their army duty. Most cases involved verbal harassment.<9>

Discrimination protections
In 1992 legislation was introduced to prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, with some exemptions for religious organizations.

Other court rulings
The Supreme Court ruled that the partner of a gay employee at El Al, Israel's national airline, is entitled to free airline tickets just as the spouse of any heterosexual employee is.

The Supreme Court recognized a lesbian as the adoptive mother of the four-year-old son of her same-sex partner, and ordered the Interior Ministry to register the adoption.

An Israeli family court on March 17, 2002 turned down an application from a lesbian couple to have their partnership union declared legal. The couple was united in a civil ceremony in Germany. The women wanted the court to recognize their partnership as a civil marriage, under Israeli law. The court said that since the women are not recognized as a family under Israeli law, the court is not authorized to rule on their case. A government lawyer who was asked by the court to give a legal opinion on the case on behalf of the Israeli government said that the state objected to granting the request.

On December 14, 2004, the Nazareth District Court ruled that same-sex couples have the same rights as married couples in inheritance rights. This ruling overturned a Family Court ruling that an elderly man from Kiryat Shmona was not entitled to spousal rights. The man had sought the estate of his late partner, with whom he lived for several decades. The Nazareth judges ruled that the term "man and woman" as spelled out in Israel's inheritance law also includes same sex couples. Judges Nissim Maman and Gabriela Levy, who issued the majority opinion, based their decision on a loose interpretation of the term "partner" as defined in other court rulings, such as those dealing with issues related to employee benefits, and thus applied the interpretation to the inheritance law. The acting president of the Nazareth District Court, Menachem Ben-David, issued the minority opinion, arguing that the legal text should not be interpreted "contrary to the lingual significance." A government spokesperson said the ruling will be appealed.

In December 2004, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled that the government cannot deport the Colombian partner of a gay Israeli man. The 32-year-old Colombian entered Israel on a visitors visa which has long expired and the Interior Ministry had ordered him deported. His partner is an Israeli citizen and a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. The couple filed an emergency petition with the Tel Aviv District Court. The men were represented by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Judge Uzi Vogelman ruled that the government had acted illegally in attempting to deport the man. In 1999 Supreme Court ruling established that the ministry could not deport foreign nationals married to Israeli citizens. Vogelman's decision extends that to apply to common-law marriages, including same-sex couples.

In March 2008, Israel's Interior Ministry granted a gay Palestinian from Jenin a rare residency permit to live with his partner of 8 years in Tel Aviv after he said his sexuality put his life in danger in the West Bank.<10> <<

I do think it is amazing that in a place (most of the middle east) where by contrast being gay can be a death sentence, it is amazing and progressive that Israel has moved forward where others have not.

Nevertheless that battle isn't over either when conservatives are willing to threaten violence against their own people to shut down Tel Aviv's parade. There's always that element standing by willing to undo progress, and they get away with it because moderates, not progressives, become complacent and would rather avoid a challenge than step up to it. There is also this to consider:

If a bunch of babtists called the mayor of Dallas and said to shut down our parade or be prepared for violence, those babtists would be the ones in danger. There isn't a chance in the world that any conservative group could entertain making a demand that the Dallas parade be shut down.

So, while Dallas is less "progressive" than Tel Aviv it's also far more stable - ironically.

I'm not excusing the bigotry at all.

I just see some as not being represtative of all. It's true that the ME in general, and even, eastern Europe are a mess when it comes to human rights for gays and women. Those regions have quite a history.

We have our own problems here too, and our own lunatics who have been on a bit of a rampage the last 12 days. I fear our domestic nuts are just going to get worst.

Honestly, if you had thought of it back, say, in 1980, what the early 21st century would be like, did you ever imagine this world?