TEL AVIV: Israeli gays were in shock Sunday after a gunman killed two people, but some said such an attack in a country where homosexuals are often vilified by religious groups was only a matter of time. Saturday’s shooting at a community center for gay and lesbian teenagers in the heart of Tel Aviv sent fear coursing through members of the Jewish state’s vibrant homosexual community – but it also came as little surprise.
Noa Shalev was at a party nearby when she heard the news that two people had been shot and 11 others wounded by a black-clad and masked gunman at the Bar Noar (“Youth Bar.”)
“People wanted to be angry, people wanted to cry, but I simply felt fear,” Shalev said outside the scene of the attack where representatives of the gay community were meeting to weigh their reaction to the unprecedented killings.
The fact that the unidentified shooter was still at large and being hunted by police only deepened her anxiety.
“You tell yourself “someone is after me, after me and no one else,” said the student, 26.
Striped flags of the gay community and flowers decked police barriers outside the club on Sunday. Placards placed on the ground read “The death of human rights,” “Down with homophobia” and “We are not afraid.” Inside the community center, tables and chairs were strewn upside down on the floor amid the bloodstains.
Police said a teenage girl and a man in his 20s were killed on the spot and 15 people wounded, three seriously. It was the worst attack ever on Israel’s gay and lesbian community.
Hundreds of people gathered Sunday afternoon on Rothschild Avenue near the crime scene to protest against the killing, branded by many as a “hate crime,” and to express solidarity with the gay community.
“There is a lot of hatred in Israeli society and I hope we will find a social way to fight and end this hatred,” said Meir Galis, 30, as dozens of people waved rainbow flags.
The city of Tel Aviv has for years been a proud bastion of Israel’s gay and lesbian community, earning an international reputation for its openness and plethora of gay clubs and bars.
Though there are small gay communities in the main cities, Tel Aviv’s image contrasts strongly with a general conservatism in Israeli society and a public disgust expressed by religious groups toward gays.
Sitting next to Shalev, Yael Relevi said the shooting was merely the latest in a long history of attacks and threats against members of the gay community over recent years.
These included a stabbing by an ultra-Orthodox Jew during a Gay Pride Parade in Occupied Jerusalem four years ago.
“It made me feel bad when I realized that we were subject to such hatred. The incident surprised me, but it follows many attacks against the community,” Relevi, 22, said of Saturday’s attack.
Yoav Zemer, 58, donned a pink shirt Sunday morning, and said he refused to be scared off by the attack. But he was still unable to hold back the tears.
“Yesterday’s incident will return. It didn’t target only us, it targeted Israel which used to be a source of pride and pluralism,” said Zemer, who has been beaten up more than once in the 30 years or so since he came out as a homosexual.
Yitzik Dror, a spokesman for the gay and lesbian community center, said the Tel Aviv attack followed years of incitement against gays. But he refused to point the finger of blame at ultra-Orthodox MPs who have lashed out at homosexuals, including one who labeled them “worse than beasts.”
“We ask all MPs to end incitement in general, not just against the gay community,” Dror said.
Gal Ochovski, a well-known member of Israel’s gay community, said it had only been a matter of time before violence against the country’s homosexuals came to this.
“Everyone living in Israel knows that in such an atmosphere of violence such a thing could happen. Israel is both a very tolerant place for gays and lesbians but also a very violent place,” he said. “Sometimes, unfortunately, the two can collide.”
Israel’s police recommend Lieberman indictment
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli police on Sunday recommended the indictment of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on several charges, including graft and money laundering, a police official said.
“The police fraud investigation unit has recommended the indictment of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on charges of bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice,” the official told AFP.
Lieberman, who leads Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home), the second largest party in the government coalition and the third largest in parliament, denies any wrongdoing and claims the police investigation was politically motivated.
“There was no real reason to open investigations against me, and if the suspicions had any foundation the investigation would not have continued for over a decade,” the 51-year-old foreign minister said yesterday in a statement.
“For 13 years now the police have been persecuting me, and as my political strength and the strength of Yisrael Beitenu have grown, the attempts to drive me from public activities have gathered pace.” Police will in the coming days submit the recommendation to Attorney General Menahem Mazuz, who will decide whether to press charges. Lieberman will be forced to step down if the indictment goes ahead.
Last month Israeli police wrapped up a decade-long criminal investigation into Lieberman, who according to local media outlets is suspected of receiving illegal donations through bank accounts opened by his daughter in Cyprus.
Television reports said investigators uncovered a web of front companies and multiple accounts allegedly used to finance Yisrael Beitenu’s campaigns.
Police presented a “body of evidence that would allow charges of money laundering and obstruction of justice to be pressed against Lieberman, his daughter Michal and two other people,” the television reports said.
Lieberman has been questioned repeatedly by the police fraud squad on suspicion of corruption, fraud, money-laundering, abuse of confidence and obstruction of justice. – AFP