CARNAL NATION

The gruesome shooting at the Bar Honoar youth center in Tel Aviv, which killed two people and wounded ten last Saturday, has sparked furious conversation in Israel about the position of gays and lesbians. Some LGBT activists are calling the shooting Israel's Stonewall, and many are pointing out that problems go far deeper than the one masked lunatic. A poll conducted of 498 people by the newspaper Haaretz found that 46 percent answered "Yes" to the question "Do you see homosexuality as a perversion?" with 12 percent saying they didn't know. Incredibly, these are optimistic numbers; they represent a slight decline in homophobia according to Professor Camil Fuchs, who conducted the poll.

Israeli LGBT organizations are using the moment to make themselves heard. During a visit to the youth center today by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a coalition of groups presented him with a letter that condemned his administration for inciting homophobia. "More than once we hear grave instances of incitement from many officials, including members of Knesset and ministers in your government," the letter said. "We, the members of the LGBT community in Israel experience verbal and physical violence on a daily basis." Visiting the youth center today, Netanyahu said that he would do more to fight prejudice. "I realize that the gay community has special needs," he said. "I want to assure you that we are open and receptive and that I as well as the ministers in my government will advance these important issues, some of which became known to me today." While community leaders praised Netanyahu for visiting the center, which has re-opened since the shootings, they were also disappointed that journalists were banned from attending.

Anger is also building in LGBT communities against Orthodox Jews. Eli Yishai, the leader of the Orthodox Shas Party, has said that gays and lesbians are "sick people"; Nissam Ze'ev, a Shas member of the Knesset who is known for saying that homosexuals would be reincarnated as rabbits, says that he received death threats after the shooting. Both Shas and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel issued statements condemning the shooting. The Rabbinate's statement said that "When Moses saw a Jew beating another Jew he called him evil. This is all the more true when a Jew murders a Jew." Despite the public condemnations, the response of many in Israeli LGBT communities was similar to that of Rachel Metz in the Jerusalem Post: "Regardless of whom the killer turns out to be, several prominent members of the country's Orthodox communities should heed these deaths as an example of the damage caused by hate speech," Metz wrote. "While the ultra-Orthodox Shas party condemned the attack, such violence was a perhaps inevitable response to the incitement uttered by several haredi leaders over the years."

As of this writing, the killer is still at large.