16 Year Old Girl Stabbed At Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade Dies

Shira Banki, the 16-year old girl who was stabbed at Thursday’s gay pride parade in Jerusalem, has succumbed to her wounds.

On Thursday several thousand people attended Jerusalem’s gay pride parade. It was relatively peaceful and joyous, until Yishai Schlissel allegedly started stabbing people. There were six victims, some treated at the scene, some transported to the hospital. One, a 16-year old girl named Shira Banki, was critically wounded. She died today in the hospital of her wounds.

Yishai Schlissel had just been released from prison weeks earlier, serving 10 years of a 12 year sentence for stabbing three people at Jerusalem’s 2005 gay pride parade. 

Schlissel reportedly had made threats before his release, and after, but before the parade, “distributed hand-written anti-gay pamphlets calling the LGBT rally ‘shameful’ and ‘blasphemous,'” the International Business Times reported.

The ultra-orthodox Jew wrote: “It is incumbent upon every Jew to risk beatings or imprisonment and together to stop the desecration for the sanctity of His name. If we refrain from declaring war, they’ll feel free to spread this shame all over the world.”

He also gave interviews to media outlets heaping scorn on the gay parade.

An LGBT advocacy group, Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance, had organized the pride event, the Washington Blade reports. 

“The LGBTQ community in Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Open House mourn her death at the hands of a fanatic, consumed with hatred and fear. The knife that fatally injured Shira was sharpened by years of incitement,” the group said in a statement in response to Shira Banki’s death. “That knife targeted all those who believe in a just society, where every woman and man can live freely, without fear of violence and persecution. That knife has wounded all those who believe in life and in God’s creation.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, “Shira was murdered for courageously supporting the principle that each and every person has the right to live their life in security and respect.”

“We will not allow this loathsome murderer to undermine the basic values upon which the Israeli society is based. We staunchly condemn this attempt to sew the seeds of hatred and violence among us and will act to bring the murderer to justice,” he added.

Jerusalem’s mayor also denounced the “murder of this young girl at the Gay Pride Parade on the streets of Jerusalem.”

“We will continue to allow full freedom of expression in this city, we will continue to support all groups and communities, we will enhance education and tolerance for others in our school system, and we will not be deterred by those who are trying to prevent it,” Mayor Nir Barkat said.

The police have come under fire for not foreseeing the possibility Schlissel would strike again.

 

 

Image by Anna Ahronheim via Twitter