Court on parade: We won't submit to threat of violence
Justice Procaccia rebukes protestors against Jerusalem gay pride march: 'Court, police won't surrender to violence.' Meanwhile, attorney’s office informs High Court that heightened security alert nationwide may lead police to recommend cancelation of parade
The High Court of Justice will rule Thursday regarding whether the Jerusalem gay pride parade will go on as planned, but already Wednesday night the court hinted that petitions against the rally would be rejected.
Justice Ayala Procaccia noted that warnings the parade would spark violence must by all means be dropped: “The police won’t surrender, the court won’t surrender, and threats of violence won’t induce the decision,” she declared.
Supreme Court Justice Dorit Beinish added: “Don’t call for violence; don’t fan the flames.”
Security alerts
Owing to the heightened security alert nationwide, which was declared following the events in Beit Hanoun Wednesday, the authorities are considered delaying the controversial parade.
The security establishment has 15 specific terror warnings, and already on Wednesday police were on high alert. On Friday police will raise alert to emergency levels nationwide due to the Jerusalem rally. Police will have to deploy numerous forces across the country and therefore may appeal to the Attorney General to reconsider delaying the parade to a later date.
Representative of the attorney’s office Eran Ettinger informed the High Court of Justice that police would convene Thursday to assess the circumstances and decide on the fate of the upcoming parade.
In the meantime, opponents of the parade have not let up their protest.
Protest going strong
Some 200 ultra-Orthodox rioted Wednesday night in Sabbath Square in Jerusalem, setting fire to trash cans and blocking traffic. Police blocked off the area.
Rabbi Simha haCohen Kook, the chief rabbi of Rehovot, attempted Wednesday to convince judges to bar the parade. Rabbi Kook appealed to their sensitivities, and even burst into tears.
“How will we not be ashamed of ourselves?” the rabbi pleaded. “I am not speaking in my own name, or the names of my fathers and grandfathers, I am speaking in the name of all humanity – what Torah will come out of Zion?”
The High Court of Justice received numerous petitions against the parade, including one from Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Eli Yishai (Shas), extreme-right activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir and former ZAKA head Yehuda Meshi-Zahav.
Meshi-Zahav asked Justice Ayala Procaccia to disqualify herself from deliberations of the case, while Marzel asked three judges – Procaccia, Dorit Beinish and Eliezer Rivlin – to disqualify themselves, claiming a panel of those three justices will not provide “justice on the matter.”
