jeruzsálemi hírek, sajnos angolul

[NANE EgyesüLet]

Kedves listatagok,

jeruzsálemi ismerősünktől érkeztek ezek a sorok, remélem hasznosnak találjátok.

TGY

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After last week’s bombing at Megiddo and yesterday’s at Herzliya (I read that the 15 year old girl died) it is hard to speak of anything else ­ we are afraid, we are tired, we can’t always find the appropriate emotions when the news comes ­ sometimes it’s a distanced nothing, sometimes it’s a relief that it wasn’t us or someone we know, sometimes it’s disbelief, most times anger…I wanted to write about something else.  I wanted people to know that there are other things going on here that don’t always make international news, but they should be known.  
 
One is that Ometz l’sarev (Courage to refuse) is a group of army soldiers and reservists who have stated that they will serve in the IDF but not over the Green Line.  It is a very difficult and controversial position to take, especially now, and they have had a lot of aggression directed against them.  An example of this is questions that Israeli high school kids were asked in their recent state exams in "Citizenship".  The questions concerned reserve soldiers refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories, and, roughly translated, read as follows:
 
1. What democratic principle/value are the refusenik reserve soldiers damaging?  Explain.
2. What kind of crime can the reserve soldiers be accused of?  Explain.
 
That said, the group now numbers 467 signatories (after an initial 50) of all ranks and they speak at universities and other platforms each day engendering debate amongst Israelis about what it means to be sending soldiers over the Green Line to protect settlements there.  The 'powers that be' have certainly applied pressure to quieten them, but the fact that nobody is getting quietly bumped off or show-trialed seems to suggest that Israel is a remarkable exception to Middle East norms in terms of openness and democracy.  For those who want to know more, they have a website at : http://www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp
 
To stay with controversy, Jerusalem saw its first ever Gay and Lesbian Pride parade on Friday.  There was a lot of press about it before the event as right wing groups had been putting up posters around the city calling for people to protest and to throw eggs at the marchers.  Making me feel a little more at home, earlier in the week, ultra-Orthodox Shas legislator Nissim Ze'ev said that homosexuals could turn Israel into an AIDS-infested "second Africa." 



"Beyond the injury to the holiness of Jerusalem, which is the eternal
capital of the Jewish people, and beyond the injury to the morals and the
sacred values of the people of Israel, from generation to generation,
which safeguarded the concept of family life, we are also liable to find
ourselves in danger perhaps parallel to that of African nations infested
with the AIDS virus," Ze'ev told Israel Radio.  "This is a group that is very sensitive to this disease, and it's a pity that we should find ourselves a 'second Africa'. What a community this is - what message are we trying to hand over to our children?" He compared the practice of homosexuality to "a disgrace to the people of Israel, like a pig in the Temple, like an idol in the Holy Temple - we must uproot this filth from our midst."




The real answer to Ze’ev came on Friday when the number of marchers (after expecting a few hundred) was 4000 as against the tens of opposers who turned up and stayed pretty silent in the end, and the 4000 included a good number of religious people some of whom walked with a banner reading 'Blessed are You G!d, who created us in His image.'  But the best thing was just the spirit - there weren't any floats or Dj's blasting out music - it was a festive, celebratory but dignified walk through the very centre of town ending in Independence Park for a concert and speeches, including Rabbi Steve Greenberg, the first gay Orthodox Rabbi to come out openly.  The Israeli Reform movement marched with their banner reading "There is more than one way to be Jewish". I felt proud of the marchers, of Jerusalem for recognising the plurality of its people and we celebrated with them.