ISRAEL: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Tel Aviv's gay youth club where gunman killed two

Record ID: 276855

  • Title: ISRAEL: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Tel Aviv's gay youth club where gunman killed two
  • Date: 7th August 2009
  • Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (AUGUST 6, 2009) (REUTERS) TEL AVIV'S GAY COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES SPEAKING AT NEWS CONFERENCE AFTER NETANYAHU'S VISIT (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) YANIV VEISMAN, HEAD OF ISRAEL'S GAY YOUTHS ORGANISATION, SAYING: "We asked the Prime Minister to look upon this incident as a terror attack, there are families, there are injured people who need all the help and as
  • Embargoed: 22nd August 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA8KFT4V7WTV7D797ZZBXUTJFA1
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday (August 6) visited a club for gay youth in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, where a gunman had killed two and wounded some 13 others on Saturday (August 1).
    During a conversation with the city's gay representatives which was held inside the club, Netanyahu said that his visit was meant to express "something ethical".
    "I try to express something ethical by coming here. And another thing, I believe that the labelling and negation of human beings is a bad thing, it's wrong. I think we are all human beings, we were all created in God's image, we all have basic rights. The first right is to be respected by others, and respect them," Netanyahu said.
    Israel's gay community has been shocked by the killing of two people in a homosexual and lesbian youth centre.
    Yaniv Veisman, the head of Israel's gay youths organisation, told reporters that the shooting attack should be referred to as a terror attack.
    "We asked the Prime Minister to look upon this incident as a terror attack, there are families, there are injured people who need all the help and assistance the government can give," said Veisman in a news conference held after Netanyahu's visit.
    Witnesses of the attack on Saturday said a masked gunman opened fire in a basement club belonging to the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association, which was hosting a weekly event for teenage gays.
    The attacker killed a 26-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl and wounded about 13 people before fleeing, hospital officials said.
    Police said they were still searching for the attacker. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said the motive for the shooting was still unclear. Police declined to comment.
    If the incident proves to be a hate crime, it will mark the most serious attack against the gay community in Israel's history.
    Although coastal, cosmopolitan Tel Aviv has a bustling gay scene, open homosexuality is less welcome in conservative areas.
    Annual gay pride parades in Jerusalem meet with often violent protests from ultra-Orthodox Jews, who view homosexuality as an abomination against God.
    Despite anti-gay sentiments among some religious Jews in Israel, gays serve openly in the military. Israel accords same-sex couples a measure of legal recognition and cohabitation rights, though Orthodox religious authorities control formal nuptials in the country.
    A court order banned publication of details of the investigation, but police said the shooting was not an anti-Israeli attack by a Palestinian.
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