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Loading ...Israeli Parliament to consider gay marriage
02.19.2009 12:17pm EST
(Jerusalem) Openly gay politician Nitzan Horovitz isn’t wasting any time. The newly elected Member of the Knesset is preparing to introduce legislation that would allow any two people to marry or have a civil union.
Currently only a rabbi can perform a marriage in Israel. A bill already before the Knesset would allow civil marriage, but only for opposite-sex couples.Horovitz said his measure would allow opposite-sex and same-sex couples to marry.
Gays and lesbians in Israel have been steadily gaining civil rights since the government overturned the law against sodomy in 1988.
There have been no restrictions on gays serving in the military since 1993. In 2000, the age of consent for gays was lowered to 16, to match the legal age for consensual sex for heterosexuals.
Gay couples are given most federal rights in Israel, although gay marriage has been rejected by the courts.
It’s doubtful the Horovitz bill will get far in the Knessett. This month’s election saw large gains by conservatives, including the small but powerful religious parties.
Nevertheless, Horovitz said he is hopeful of a dialogue in the parliament.
Israel in many ways is a contradiction in terms – Tel Aviv is liberal and gays enjoy a vibrant community, but in conservative Jerusalem, the LGBT community is frequently under attack.
Authorities and ultra-Orthodox religious leaders have constantly attempted to bar gay pride from Jerusalem.
Last year’s gay pride parade went ahead despite attempts by the city to get an injunction blocking it. More than three-thousand people marched through the city, guarded by some 2,000 police.
At one point, a small group of haredi, the ultra-Orthodox sect that disrupted pervious pride celebrations, were blocked by police from coming close to the parade route. One protestor was arrested.
In 2007, moments before the gay pride march was to begin in Jerusalem police arrested a man carrying a homemade bomb. Police said the 32 year old said he planned to detonate it near the parade route to scare people away.
The arrest was one of nearly 200 as members of the haredi rioted for several days leading up to the parade. Garbage cans were set on fire and stones thrown at police. Twenty-two officers were reportedly injured.
Some 7000 police – many brought in from other cities – were stationed along the gay pride parade route, far outnumbering the the marchers estimated at about 1000.
At one point, police routed about 500 haredim who were armed with eggs and bags of excrement. At another point on the parade route, only a few blocks long, protestors tried to pour cooking oil on the road so marchers would slip and fall.
The 2006 pride march was cancelled following a week of rioting in Jerusalem by the haredi.
Thousands of sect members took to the streets for a week, setting fires and injuring more than a dozen people.
Instead of holding a march, Open House held a pride concert and celebration at Hebrew University where anyone entering the grounds was checked by police. There were no incidents.
In 2005, the parade also was marred by violence. More than a than a dozen protesters were arrested and three people were stabbed.
Almost 1,000 protesters lined the parade route. Bottles of urine and bags containing feces were hurled at marchers.
Shortly after the parade began, Shai Schlissel, a haredi member, rushed into the marchers on Ben Yehuda Street, stabbing a man and a woman.
Others in the parade attempted to subdue him. The third victim was a marcher who went to the aid of the other two victims. Schlissel is in prison for the attack.
This will be INteresting to watch.
I pray for the safety of my GLBTQAI brothers and sisters in the Holy City.
The haredi should be ashamed of themselves. GLBTQAI people were used to test the ovens at Auschwitz before the Shoah really got going. The haredi of ALL people should know what it means to be persecuted for who you are.
But they don’t. They’re CRAZY. A friend of mine nearly got himself STONED for wandering into one of their neighborhoods wearing a short-sleeved SHIRT (!).
Just a couple of corrections: Israeli gays don’t enjoy “most federal rights”, since Israel has never been a federal country. Through a series of favourable court decisions, plus, more recently, AG directives, gay couples (and all unmarried couples who live together) enjoy pretty much the same rights as married couples through a well-established practice of “common-law marriage”. Civil marriage isn’t available in Israel to anyone, but civil marriage from abroad – including gay marriage – is recognized.
I’m not quite sure how this article turned halfway through into a concise history of the Jerusalem gay pride – there’s a lot more to write about LGBT rights in Israel besides this relatively minor event.
Aviad,
what is minor to you to in Israel in the course of one’s life is important to many gay people in the USA.
Time and time again that has been born out. Civil unions in the civil union states are showing up as a failed experiment. Employers and insurance companies largely recognize only marriage and in places like New Jersey have largely ignored the local NJ civil unions. Marriage is the only “currency” many of these employers and insurance companies in NJ recognizing for health and insurance benefits for the same-sex partners of the employees in NJ (who were trying to get their partners included in their work-place provided health plans etc) I don’t know how things are in Israel, but that is how they have been “panning out here”.
To me to married to my future partner is a cause of joy and one of the biggest events of our lives. It would be very disappointing if it was nothing but a minor event. I plan church, repast, celebration and honeymoon. LIfe is too short to not have something like getting married to the love of you life mean something and an occasion of joy and celebration aside from the civil part of it with license with my local state, being a legal contract with 1,100 rights, responsibilities and obligations.
The only people to whom this should ever be a minor to is our block-headed state and federal governments. Asd the state stand to benefit from all the tax money that would roll in…in the form of state sales taxes on the zillion and one things a to be married and newly wed couple had and will spend on in preparations and various items, what their family friends and guests will spend on by way of transportation, lodging, clothes and hairstyling. etc And the average married US couple typically takes a honeymoon trip when they can to some place they like.
And this spending benefits many stores, companies, caterers and vendors every time something like this happens.
US state and federal governments typical “cut off their noses to spite their own faces” by trying stop or to kill marriage equality in this land.
I take another view of why Jerusalem Gay Pride shouldn’t be called “minor” …
The ONLY thing that Orthodox Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Jerusalem could agree on after 2000+ years(600 years less for the Muslims) was that they hated gays, and under NO circumstances would they allow a peaceful Gay Pride celebration of ANY KIND to “besmirch” the “Holy City.”
THAT had and continues to have WORLDWIDE repercussions.
Until WE GLBTQAI people can celebrate OUR faith AND our identities FREELY and without FEAR in Jerusalem, we will never be free of the bondage and error of institutional religion, be it Orthodox Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.
“NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM!” is the cry that ends the Passover celebration. May we make it ours.
Morgan, I should make it clear that what I called “minor” was not the issue of gay marriage in Israel (I don’t see that as minor), but the issue of the gay pride parade. It had already taken place for a few years peacefully, then a few politicians decided they could make some political fortune by opposing it and taking to the streets, and yet last year it took place again with hardly any unusual incident, and it seems like with Jerusalem’s new, secular, mayor things will get simpler and calmer in the future. IMHO, the LGBT community in Israel has some other issues to take care of which are a lot more important and urgent. It’s also important to remember that the court has consistently upheld our right to march in Jerusalem, and that everyone has a right to protest, even if we don’t like what they are saying.
As for the marriage issue, Israel’s situation is unique, and can hardly be compared to the States. As I said, there’s no civil marriage at all, only religious marriage. That means that lots of straight couples cannot marry in Israel either, if they fail all sorts of ridiculous religious tests, but that’s a general problem in Israeli society (and politics), not so much a “gay problem”. Those two issues are interrelated, and will have to be solved eventually together. In the meantime, same-sex couples enjoy pretty much all the benefits of married couples, including immigration rights. There’s still a long way to go before full equality, but dwelling on the incidents at the J-lem gay pride gives a very lopsided picture of the situation in Israel. It seems a bit like 365gay.com just C&P-ed whatever old articles about Israel they could find.
If you have a minute, read this, in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Israel
Aviad:
I both agree and disagree with you.
I don’t consider Jerusalem Pride to be a minor thing at all; if anything, it’s proof that yes, LGBT people do exist, even in Jerusalem. (And, to a lesser extent, LGBT Jews do exist too.)
It reminds certain people (conservative people of given religions) that we exist and that we’re equal to them and deserve the same respect as they expect for themselves.)
The fact that the organizers of Jerusalem Pride have been able to keep festivities guarded and lower-key (no floats; and the most naked person is wearing jeans and a t-shirt) than elsewhere in the world also says another thing–We can be respectful and are respectful of religious people; and, indeed, some of us ourselves are religious too.
I think that’s a good and very important statement that we just can’t make many other places in the world legally.
That said, I have no clue why it’s included this article. Apparently some of the writers for 365gay think that if they’re going to do some kind of article about Israel they should take random events in Israel’s LGBT history to include as ‘background information’, whether or not they are actually related to the topic of the article.
Considering that we are about to have a right wing government, Horovitz’s bill has as much chance of passing as a snowflake in a blowtorch convention.
It is my understanding that gay marriages performed elsewhere are recognized in Israel. Perhaps the canadians or Spanish would be willing to do gay marriages within their embassies, which in many countries, are considered under the laws of the embassy’s country, not the hosting country.
And I’ve told my wife I will never go visit Israel ( we are both Jewish, though I may well join the UU church tthis year since our Reform congregation will not ACTIVELY support gay marriage, even though the Rabbi says he will do the religious ceremony if asked. I simply said to my wife that I’d rather give the money to gay groups rather then spend it to go to israel, where the Haridim (ultra orthodox cro-magnons) seem to have forgotten whose ashes shared the smokestacks of hitler’s ovens.
Religious conservatism, be it Islamic, Christian, Jewish, or other, is the real enemy in the war we need to wage on terror and ignorance in the name of God.
I might add that I note this is about civil marriage, which does not exist in Israel. The ultra-orthodox will howl like a stuck pig about this proposal, for it means the loss of power, which is really what it is all about.
They ought to be tossed in some prison, and fed bacon, pork, and ham exclusively. It would be fitting. (remember Kosher laws)
VERILY DO I SAY UNTO THEE: THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR’S WIFE AND THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR’S ANUS.
DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT THE TWO GAY JUDGES WHO TRIED EACH OTHER?
My goodness “moshes” what a sick, little jew you are!
A TREATISE ON THE NEED FOR A SEMITIC MODERN MASTURBATION MENTALITY
By Moshe “hung so lo“ Rabeynu, March 23, 2009
comments
CHILDREN MUST BE INCULCATED AS TO THE BENEFITS OF MASTURBATION IN THE ATTAINMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF A HEALTHY MIND AND A HEALTHY BODY! PENT UP SEXUAL FRUSTRATION IN CHILDREN HAS NEVER BEEN HONESTLY AND ADEQUATELY DISCUSSED AND DEALT WITH IN JEWISH DISCOURSE AND DOCTRINE. MODERN LIFESTYLES AFFORD INDIVIDUALS THE PRIVACY AND HYGIENIC FACILITIES NECESSARY TO MASTURBATE IN A PRIVATE, DIGNIFIED AND SANITARY MANNER. ONE CAN WELL UNDERSTAND THE IRE THAT WAS AROUSED BY MASTURBATING INDIVIDUALS FOUR THOUSAND YEARS AGO WHEN AN ENTIRE LARGE FAMILY LIVED TOGETHER IN A TENT IN AN ARID LOCATION. NOBODY WANTED TO HAVE A WAD OF FLYING JISSUM HIT HIM IN THE EYE OR LAND IN HIS HUMUS. WATER WAS SCARCE AND ONE HAD TO WALK , SOMETIMES LONG DISTANCES, TO THE WELL TO GET IT, IF IT WAS AVAILABLE AT ALL. UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES IT WAS A CHOICE OF WATER FOR DRINKING OR WATER FOR WASHING EJACULATE OFF OF ONE’S HANDS. THIS IS WHY THE EARLY SAGES WERE SO VOCIFEROUS IN THEIR CONDEMNATION OF MASTURBATION. WE JEWISH PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A HORNY BUNCH AND, IF THERE WEREN’T THESE SEVERE STRICTURES AGAINST MASTURBATION AT THAT TIME, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN ERRANT CUMSTAINS ALL OVER THE PLACE AND THE SMELL OF FRESHLY RELEASED JISSUM WOULD HAVE WAFTED FAR AND WIDE, EVEN WITHIN THE HALLOWED HALLWAYS OF THE SACRED TEMPLE ITSELF. TIMES HAVE CHANGED. IF PARENTS TODAY STRESS THE BENEFITS OF MASTURBATION TO THEIR CHILDREN, THEY WILL HELP LESSEN THE OCCURRENCE OF STDs, AND UNPLANNED PREGNANCIES. SCHOLARSHIP LEVELS WOULD INCREASE DRAMATICALLY WITH THE RELEASE OF PENT UP ADOLESCENT EJACULATORY TENSION.. IF NECESSARY, PARENTS SHOULD SET AN EXAMPLE FOR THEIR CHILDREN AS TO THE PROPER METHODOLOGY FOR THIS ACTIVITY AND FOLLOW UP AND MAKE SURE THAT THEIR CHILDREN ARE MASTURBATING REGULARLY AT AN OPTIMUM FREQUENCY. KEEPING A MASTURBATION DIARY COULD BE A VERY USEFUL TOOL IN MAINTAINING THE PROPER SCHEDULE. EVERY PARENT SHOULD ASK HIS CHILDREN ON A DAILY BASIS, “DID YOU DO YOUR HOMEWORK AND MASTURBATE TODAY?” OH, OF COURSE, THE CHABADNIKS AND THE FRUMNIKS WILL YELL OUT, “BUT RAMBAM SAID THIS, AND RASHI SAID THAT AND RABBI AKIVA SAID THIS, AND THAT, ABOUT THE EVILS OF MASTURBATION.” PROBABLY ALL THREE OF THEM WERE MASTURBATING WHILE THEY WERE WRITING THESE STRICTURES, ANOTHER CASE OF “DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO”. WE MUST NOT CONTINUE TO LET OTHERS DO OUR THINKING FOR US UNDER THE GUISE OF RELIGIOUS EXPERTISE. SHALOM AND ZEI GEZUNT!