You can't make this kind of noxious nonsense up.
The third night in a row of Haredi protests against the Gay Pride parade planned for next week in Jerusalem turned violent Thursday.
Five police officers and one Haaretz photographer were lightly injured by protesters, who burned trash and tried to block off a main road as they threw stones, steel pipes, gasoline, chairs, eggs, and whatever other objects they could find at police who arrived to restore order.
About 2,000 protesters came out for a third night in a row of demonstrations against the city's decision to hold the parade in the capital.
What's the reason for this again? Ah, yes. I remember. Jerusalem is holy, so it can't be defiled by people peacefully marching in support of their right to live and love in peace. Much better that pious upholders of the Divine Will should be rioting, burning trash and attacking police. Now is that holy, or what?
Let's remember that these people react the same way when the police try to autopsy the body of a potential murder victim. Or when a new road is built over what is rumored to be the remains of ancient Jewish graves.
You won't see much in the way of anti-haredi posts on this blog. Some of my closest relatives are haredi (ultra-Orthodox), and even if they weren't, I try to subscribe to a live and let live policy. That's why I support the Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem or anywhere else, for that matter. But a lot of secular Jews are put off by haredim -- especially in Israel. They don't like the way the haredim dress or the way they insist on exhibiting their blatantly Jewish identification. They don't like feeling that the haredim think they're better than everyone else or the way they want to establish their own neighborhoods where their lifestyle prevails and everyone else has to conform. These secular folks don't like the fact that there's special legislation protecting the rights of the haredim to preserve their culture and their beliefs and they think, no, they know that they're right and the haredim are wrong and should keep their strange ideas quietly to themselves and stop trying to expose them to/impose them on everyone else.
So it should come as no great shock to these hiloni (secular) people that the haredim feel exactly the same way about them. The thing is, in this world, there are times when you can't have everything your way, and throwing a temper tantrum in response is simply not acceptable. It's not acceptable from the Islamist extremists and it's not acceptable from the haredi ones, either. It's nice that they've made an alliance with the fringes of the Muslim and Christian worlds over this issue and that they're all having this tantrum together. But when it comes to damaging people and property, when it comes to attacking police who are only trying to do their job, when it comes to a true desecration of the holiness of Jerusalem, it's way past time to stop, no matter what the cause (and regardless of whether you're throwing eggs or gasoline or paint thinner).
I hate posting stuff like this. I wish I didn't have to. But I'm not willing to let the left claim ownership of this issue. It's too important to too many people I care about. And it's too important to our ultimate salvation as a nation and as a people that we learn to tolerate differences and support the rights of those who are not like us to be who they are. So long as they reciprocate.
