Gay Israelis reeling after shooting attack
By Joshua Mitnick · August 4, 2009
TEL AVIV (NEW YORK JEWISH WEEK) -- Amid beefed-up security outside a gay community center where two young Israelis were shot and killed, the shock that greeted the attack was replaced by sobriety -- and even a sense of opportunity.
Gay Israelis said the murders on Saturday night, in which a masked gunman not only killed two but wounded about a dozen others before fleeing -- robbed them of a sense of security in Tel Aviv’s otherwise gay-friendly cocoon.
It also has stoked anger at fervently Orthodox groups in Israel accused of inciting hatred against gays.
Etai Pinkas, the founder and chairman of the gay community center, said that the tragedy, which some have cited as the worst hate crime in Israel’s history, has given Israel’s gay community a “teaching moment.”
“We received some focus, unfortunately,” Pinkas said. “And the focus is that we don’t have equal rights. Maybe something will start because of this.”
TEL AVIV (NEW YORK JEWISH WEEK) -- Amid beefed-up security outside a gay community center where two young Israelis were shot and killed, the shock that greeted the attack was replaced by sobriety -- and even a sense of opportunity.
Gay Israelis said the murders on Saturday night, in which a masked gunman not only killed two but wounded about a dozen others before fleeing -- robbed them of a sense of security in Tel Aviv’s otherwise gay-friendly cocoon.
It also has stoked anger at fervently Orthodox groups in Israel accused of inciting hatred against gays.
Etai Pinkas, the founder and chairman of the gay community center, said that the tragedy, which some have cited as the worst hate crime in Israel’s history, has given Israel’s gay community a “teaching moment.”
“We received some focus, unfortunately,” Pinkas said. “And the focus is that we don’t have equal rights. Maybe something will start because of this.”