Man stabs six at gay pride march

According to emergency services, two of the six injured people are in serious condition. Of the six victims, one was critically wounded while the others suffered moderate to light wounds.

Despite a heavy security presence, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man on Thursday managed to stab six people during Jerusalem’s annual gay march.

Schlissel, who stabbed three people in the 2005 Gay Pride march, had been recently released from prison after serving a 10-year sentence.

When the stabbing occurred, witnesses say a police officer tackled the assailant to the ground and then arrested him. Another woman was shown bleeding from her arm as someone applied pressure to the wound. “We can not allow such crimes, and we must condemn those who commit and support them”.

Witnesses said the attacker – wearing traditional black clothes of the religious Jewish Haredim population – ran into a crowd of marchers in West Jersualem’s Keren Hayesod Street as they walked towards Liberty Bell Park for a rally.

“Once again, the evildoers want to have a parade of sin and of all places, in Jerusalem – city of the king of kings blessed be he – in order to defile its holiness and desecrate its holy name on Thursday”.

The assailant was arrested and is being questioned, said police spokesman Asi Aharoni. “We are trying to change that”.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called the stabbing a “criminal act” and said it was “an attempt to disrupt social life in the city and to suppress the basic human right of freedom of expression”. And hopefully we will change that.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the assault as a “despicable hate crime” while President Reuven Rivlin warned that social intolerance could spell disaster for Israel. “Hopefully he’s a minority”.

The event has long been a source of tension between Jerusalem’s secular majority and its Jewish Orthodox communities.

For years now, Tel Aviv has been celebrated as one of the top gay destinations in the world-this year’s Tel Aviv Pride attracted over 180,000 people-as a bastion of liberalism in an otherwise hostil Middle East. Jerusalem, however, is another story. And unlike most large gay pride celebrations, the Jerusalem March is known for the seriousness in its tone and decorum, fitting for the city in which it is held.