Israel Responds to Hate Crime Against Gay Youth

by Michael Jones · 2009-08-10 04:38:00 UTC
Topics:

Tel Aviv

Michelle over at the Stop Genocide blog here at change.org has a thoughtful piece on the violence that happened last week at an Israeli Gay Youth center in Tel Aviv, where a gunman barged into the center, opened fire, and killed two young people (and injuring many others).  The hate crime, which has undoubtedly devastated the Israeli LGBT community (as well as caused a ripple through LGBT communities here in the States, where a number of solidarity vigils have popped up), showed a new face of terrorism in the Middle East.

This past weekend, LGBT folks, straight allies, and a bunch of politicians and performers took to the streets by the thousands - estimates say anywhere from 25,000 to 75,000 people were in the streets - to condemn the killings and pledge to work for the protection of LGBT people in Israel.  President Simon Peres perhaps put it best, when he said that the violence committed at the Tel Aviv Gay Youth Center was violence done to the entire state of Israel.

We are the people of 'Thou shall not kill' … The bullets that hit the gay community at the beginning of the week struck us all as people, as Jews, as Israelis...

The shots which struck this proud community affected us all as human beings, as Jews and as Israelis. The man who targeted the two victims targeted all of us...Everyone has the right to be different and proud. No one has the right to interfere in other people's lives so long as everyone respects law and order. I came to share your tears after the death of two young innocents. Be strong and courageous.

And as Michelle over at Stop Genocide notes, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu also weighed in, calling the acts of violence baseless and pledging to catch whoever perpetrated the crime.

"We are all created in God's image. We all have fundamental rights, the first of which is to be treated with respect by others and give [them] the same respect," he said.

"Anyone who has suffered from baseless hatred, as an individual or in a group, knows how painful and unacceptable it is. This is something we must uproot from society as much as possible," he added. "I think Israeli society has made progress toward tolerance, and I hope and feel certain that we can make further progress."

This was a terrible crime, and a horrible loss.  In the wake of such tragedy, about the only good that can come of it happened this weekend in Israel.  Solidarity.  A pledge to make sure that a crime like this never happens again.  And a call for action to remember that all people - including gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people - are created in God's image.  Talk about turning violence into love.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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