Jerusalem Gay Pride Stabber Charged With Murder
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The haredi Orthodox man who stabbed six marchers at the Jerusalem gay pride parade, leaving a 16-year-old girl dead, was charged with murder.
Yishai Schlissel, 39, was charged Monday in Jerusalem District Court on one count of premeditated murder in the death of Shira Banki along with six counts of attempted murder and aggravated assault.
Schlissel refused to recognize the authority of the court during the arraignment and refused to stand during the proceedings.
“God, the creator of the world, did not give you authority to judge me, and so I am not interested in asking questions or responding to them,” he told the court, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Schlissel has eschewed legal counsel, saying the court does not recognize Jewish law, and has not cooperated with the investigation. The court ordered the public defender to continue to represent Schlissel during court proceedings, however.
Schlissel had been released from prison three weeks before this year’s parade after serving 10 years for a similar attack at the Jerusalem gay pride parade in 2005.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
