Jerusalem gay couple file police complaint after assault by ultra-Orthodox
Nerya and Kaiwin, who live opposite a yeshiva, say they have faced three weeks of harassment including a brick thrown through their window and other physical violence
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A gay couple from Jerusalem filed a police complaint on Tuesday, saying they’d experienced repeated harassment and physical assaults at or near their home, which is located opposite a Haredi yeshiva.
In a statement, Nerya and Kaiwin described the harassment they had faced over a three-week period that eventually led them to go to the police.
Earlier this month, on a Friday night, their home came under attack, they said.
“While preparing the Shabbat dining table in our living room on Friday evening, someone suddenly threw a brick into our home, out of nowhere, with force and in order to intentionally hit someone,” Nerya said in the statement
“By some miracle, it flew over Kaiwin’s head and didn’t hit him,” he added.
Then on another evening, as they were returning home, they were verbally assaulted by three young ultra-Orthodox students.
“Three students from the yeshiva across from us were sitting next to the entrance of our house,” Nerya said. “When we returned, they got up and started cursing and spitting at us. They said ‘Get out of here, Jerusalem isn’t for you, it needs to be purged from all homosexuals.’ They came into the backyard and one of them kicked the gate and threatened us.”
אלו נריה וקאיוין, והאבן הזו נזרקה לביתם באמצע ארוחת שישי לפני 3 שבועות, מאז הם סובלים מאיומים וקללות על רקע נטייתם המינית. נריה מספר: "אנחנו כבר חצי שנה גרים פה ושמעתי מלא פעמים בחורים מתחת לחלון מדברים על זה שצריך לטהר את ירושלים ולשרוף את ההומואים. קיוויתי שזה יגמר בדיבורים". pic.twitter.com/zgCD3f5Bml
— Hadar Gil-Ad | הדר גיל-עד ???? (@HadarGil) March 23, 2022
The statement did not say where in the capital the attack happened.
Nerya said he’d grown up in an Orthodox, tolerant home.
“It is not reasonable that I should be spat at in the face and receive threats to my life,” he said. “I really don’t need to live my life in fear or in secret. Since when is love a crime? It’s frightening that these things are happening in Israel.”
The Aguda – Israel’s LGBT Task Force, an Israeli nonprofit LGBT rights organization, has since contacted the Jerusalem municipality, demanding that cameras be installed near the yeshiva.
“This serious assault reminds us of the bleak reality in which a violent act against the LGBT community takes place every three hours,” said Aguda vice president Ran Shalhavi.
Alon Shahar, director of the Jerusalem Open House, which serves the gay community in the capital, said members have for a long time been “the subject of an ongoing onslaught of violence that takes many forms. But a person doesn’t have to accept an attack like this.”
Police said in a statement it “takes a serious view of violence of any kind” and noted that officers arrived at the scene and detained a suspect was detained for questioning.
The investigation is ongoing and police vowed to bring to justice those involved in the incident, the statement said.
The Times of Israel Community.