"PRIDE" WARS

2 Sivan 5779

Day 46 of the Omer

B"H! Every year it gets a little bit better here as more and more good Jews wake up and speak up!

Vandals burn pride flags in Ramat Gan

Ramat Gan’s mayor on Sunday expressed outrage after unknown vandals burned several Gay Pride flags that had been hung up in the city by the municipality ahead of Gay Pride Month.

“The criminals who burned the pride flags will achieve the opposite of their intention,” Carmel Shama-Hacohen said. “For every flag that is vandalized in the city, we will put up 10 more.”

He called the incident “the result of inciting and deceitful rhetoric encouraged by the extreme fringes” and vowed that the city would champion “tolerance, love, openness to all and zero tolerance for hate, thuggery and violence.”

...Shama-Hacohen said he held a meeting Friday with the city’s religious leaders who objected to the gay pride events, describing the encounter as “not easy” and “unpleasant for me.” However, he said dialog between the sides was important even if it was known in advance that the gaps were too far to be bridged.

“There is no choice but to live with mutual respect, to live and allow others to live,” he said.

The flag burning occurred a week after Jerusalem’s chief rabbi asked that city’s mayor, Moshe Lion, prevent LGBT flags from being put up ahead of the annual pride parade, because they “mar the city.” However, the Jerusalem Municipality said in a statement that the flags would be put up like in previous years ahead of the June 6 rally, in accordance with court rulings on the matter.

There is an unconfirmed report that "hundreds" of Jerusalem residents wrote to the mayor demanding that the "pride" flags be removed from the city's lampposts.

 "As residents of the city of Jerusalem we see ourselves as obligated to protest the hanging of abomination flags and the hosting of the abomination parade, as well as the transfer of half a million dollars to the LGBT community, which hurts Judaism's basic principles and takes pride in committing some of the worst sins in the Torah. We must distance this abomination," they wrote.

"We support and stand behind Jerusalem's rabbi, Rabbi Aryeh Stern, and demand like him that your honor fulfill his request to remove the abomination flags from the city's streets."

The mayor has allegedly responded with a promise to take the flags down when the parade is over.

Meantime, other protests are growing, too...

POLICE ON ALERT AS PRIDE PARADE COMES TO JERUSALEM

Some 2,500 police officers will secure Thursday’s Jerusalem March for Pride and Tolerance parade, according to Superintendent Micky Rosenfeld, the Israel Police national spokesman to the foreign Media.

Anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 people are expected to attend the event, which has been taking place for 15 years.

Rosenfeld told The Jerusalem Post that police have been working over the last few weeks making security arrangements for this year’s parade, which begins at Liberty Bell Park and ends at Independence Park. Participants march 1.5 kilometers (just under one mile). The day culminates with a festival in the park.

Throughout the march, police officers - Border Police, special patrol units and undercover agents - will position themselves every 10 to 20 meters, he said. There will also be police helicopters circling overhead and drones will be used, as well.

“The police have already warned specific individuals to stay away from the area,” Rosenfeld said, noting that while police have not received notification about any specific threats, they want to stave off any distasteful disruptions, as well.

He confirmed that all warnings of potential disruptions have related to individuals from the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community.

Two counter-protests will take place alongside the parade, one near the entrance to Yemin Moshe (opposite the entrance to Liberty Bell Park) and another near Paris Square. About 300 people are expected to take part in those protests and police units will be on the scene there, as well.

An additional security measure will be taken this year, Rosenfeld said. Police will be allowed to ask for identification as they profile the crowd.

...Earlier this week, signs condemning the LGBTQ community were hung around the holy city, but police removed the signs in coordination with the city the next day.

“The parade is a sensitive issue given the different sectors and different communities in Jerusalem,” said Rosenfeld.

Soon, very soon, it will all just be a bad memory.