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by Londonbear
The religious right in Israel are promoting a bill in the Knesset that would amend the country's basic law to include "the Jerusalem municipality is authorized to bar parades and processions on the grounds that they disturb public order, offend the public's sentiments or on religious grounds."
This is intended to enable the banning of the annual Gay Pride March which is the subject of a concerted hate campaign. The wording of course would enable any protest over matter of controversy to be banned, including the mass protests over the Prime Minister's performance in the Lebanon War.
On Sunday, the bill passed its first hurdle when a committee of ministers approved it. It will now go to the Knesset for consideration. Haaretz speculates that:
The legislation is being promoted by Knesset Member Eliahu Gabbay of the National Religious Party. Previous rulings by the country's High Court have been against local municipalities being able to make decisions on religious matters however the bill changes the Basic Law so (from Haaretz)
Clearly Haaretz believes that the High Court would not consider that the banning of peaceful protests or demonstrations on religious grounds would constitute a threat to democracy.
Last year when Jerusalem was due to hold the World Pride event, the full range of religious force was imposed to stop it. The Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar wrote to the Pope to enlist his help.
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger spoke at a religious meeting in Moscow.
Ynet report for above two quotes.
Yehuda Levin, a member of the Rabbinical Alliance of America went to Israel with the mission to stop the event. He told World Net Daily"Israel is the Holy Land, not the homo-land,". WND gave some more examples of this bigot's views:
So it's not Hamas or Hezbollah that was responsible for last year's wars, it was the homos. That was actually quite ironic as the objections to the march came from Christian and Muslim clerics too. The planned event was cancelled but not after violence involving the fire bombing of synagogues. (In 2005 an ultra-orthodox young man wounded three parade participants with a kitchen knife at a lower key event.) Later in 2006 a fixed rally took the place of the march.
Already this year, in April a bomb exploded injuring a worker, believed to be the work of the same ultra-orthodox groups who rioted in Jerusalem last year.
Ynet
The way the law is framed, the Jerusalem authorities could ban the Gay Pride march but it is not clear whether it would also be used to stop the protest marches by the haredim which last year ended in violence and police injuries.
Israeli Ministers Support Ban on Gay Pride Parade | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Israeli Ministers Support Ban on Gay Pride Parade | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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