Pride & Prejudice

~

The 2nd of August will be rememberred as a black-letter day for the gay community.

~
On a Saturday night, a camouflaged gunman entered the Israeli *LGBT Association's center in Tel-Aviv. Equipped with a M-16 rifle, he began opening fire on the participants of the event. The atrocious massacre came to an end with a sore outcome: two fatalities and fifteen wounded people. The assailant fled from the scene of the crime on foot, still remaining at large.

~
The event has evoked complete astonishment among members of the gay community, since no evidence confirms homophobic activity in Tel-Aviv, the most liberal city in Israel. Hundreds of Israeli homosexuals held a rally and lit candles in tribute to the victims of the massacre.
~

According to the police, there was no terror motive behind the event. To my mind, the fact that the assailant was prompted by a homophobic factor merely demonstrates that the level of tolerance among the Israeli multitude is meager. The thought of belonging to a shallow and bigoted society saddens me. Hence, I believe that the value of accepting diversity should be delivered to people when they are still in diapers and lack the ability to pick up a rifle and shoot someone due to his supposedly different identity.

~

*LGBT = Lesbian Gay Biseuxual Transgender

~

This essay was based on the article below:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3755400,00.html
http://www.sovo.com/2009/8-7/news/localnews/10450.cfm

When Love Is Suppressed... Hatred Takes Its Place!

~
August 17, 2009: A Swedish tabloid, called the Aftonbladet, claimed that Israeli troops killed Palestinians and harvested their organs. According to the report, bodies of Palestinians were being returned within five days with stitches running from their abdomen to their neck. This has evolved a severe diplomatic controversy between Israel and Sweden.
~
The author of the article, Donald Bostrom, spoke to Israel Radio, telling he was concerned by the allegations made public. Bostrom said that the article's purpose was to call for an investigation on suspicion to trafficking in organs. Despite this, major Swedish sources have criticized Aftonbladet for publishing a groundless anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
~
The baseless report sparked a furious reaction by Israel's Foreign Ministry, who associated the article with the medieval blood libel. Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has tenaciously clarified that Israel is not asking for an apology, but for Sweden's official condemnation of the report.
~

Bostrom's report is nothing but a composition filled with mendacious utterances to the brim. As a democratic country, Sweden stands for the freedom of speech, but every positive thing must have its own limitations. Recycling historic blood libels is certainly not a way of using that precious tool. I would be more than delighted to read in the forthcoming days about Aftonbladet's deprecation of the report, and of course, Bostrom's sincere apology for Israel.

~

~
This essay was based on the article below:
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1496925.php/Israel-Sweden-crisis-over-organ-harvesting-claim-intensifies