Two young people, a man and a woman, were seriously injured in the attack, according to Israel’s emergency medical service. He was later revealed to be Yishai Shlissel – an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man who was previously jailed for 10 years over a similar attack at the annual march in 2005.
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Jerusalem District Police chief Moshe Edry said police didn’t have concrete intelligence that Schlissel was in the area of the parade.
Israel’s Channel 2 TV aired an interview that Schlissel gave to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish site recently where he spoke out against the gay parade taking place in Jerusalem.
About 5,000 people were marching as part of yesterday’s event when witnesses said they heard people screaming and running for cover, and saw “bloodied people on the ground”.
An ultra-Orhtodox extremist who was arrested suspected of stabbing six people at Jerusalem Pride has been remanded in custody.
The Magen David Adom, the Jewish equivalent of the Red Cross, said two of Thursday’s casualties were in a serious condition.
“It’s a most grave incident”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
“In the state of Israel, the freedom of choice of an individual is one of the most basic values”, he said.
A religious protester armed with a knife ran amok during Jerusalem’s gay pride march, stabbing six people, the Guardian reports.
Police arrest Yishai Shlissel, the alleged attacker. “I wish the wounded a speedy recovery”.
The attack prompted a ritualistic chorus of condemnation, including from right-wing Orthodox politicians who have fomented the obscurantist backwardness that found violent expression in Schlissel’s terrorist attack, as well as the other right-wing secular Zionist politicians who curry favor with these religious fanatics. Israeli police said several people were stabbed. “We must not be deluded; a lack of tolerance will lead us to disaster”, he said.
Schlissel stabbed the marchers with a knife as the parade wound through Keren Hayesod Street.
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Uri Blau, an Israeli journalist, also shared on Twitter a “letter distributed this morning against pride parade was signed by alleged attacker, YishaiSchlissel” The manifesto was a call to violence to prevent the “blasphemous” event.
