Jewish Home Leader Admits Organizing Jerusalem Anti-Gay Parade With Donkeys and Goats
Bezalel Smotrich Image by haaretz
Intolerance: Anti-gay activists hold 2006 Jerusalem march to spotlight ‘deviant’ acts. Image by getty images
Bezalel Smotrich, who is ninth on Habayit Hayehudi’s Knesset list, in 2006 was involved in organizing the anti-gay Beast Parade in Jerusalem as an answer to the annual Pride Parade.
As Channel 2 News reported Sunday night, the Beast Parade was designed to illustrate the acts of homosexuals.
The Beast Parade was part of a protest against the Pride Parade, which was scheduled in the city for that day but was canceled. A demonstration for civil rights was held instead, at the stadium on the Givat Ram campus of Hebrew University.
The Beast Parade was organized by the non-profit organization Komemiyut, of which Smotrich is a leader.
Through a spokesman, Smotrich told Ha’aretz that “I did it when I was young, and I regret it.”
As part of the march, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews and right-wing activists, mainly adherents of the ideology of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, marched with goats and donkeys in the Rose Garden in Jerusalem, holding signs with slogans such as “Be shocked, Jerusalem” and “Stop the impurity.”
The march’s organizers said, “At least the animals committed no sin.”
In an interview with Arutz Sheva before the event, Smotrich said the Pride Parade was “worse than the acts of animals.” He added, “This is a group of deviants carrying out an act that the Israeli public is revolted by.”
Although the recording on which Smotrich’s statements were heard has been available for on-demand listening on Arutz Sheva, a recent look on the site showed that it was recently removed.
A spokesman for Habayit Hayehudi commented, “The acts are offensive, and it is good that Bezalel himself sees it that way.”
The ninth slot on Habayait Hayehudi’s list is reserved for a member of the Tekuma movement, which joined with Habayit Hayehudi.
For more stories, go to Haaretz.com or to subscribe to Haaretz, click here and use the following promotional code for Forward readers: FWD13.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
