Police arrest Jerusalem man over anti-gay comments

Police on Thursday arrested a former prisoner after he spoke to friends about the need to attack members of the LGBTQ community.

He also justified the acts of Yishai Schlissel, who went on a stabbing spree at last year’s Gay Pride march in Jerusalem, killing 16-year-old Shira Banki and wounding others.

The 27-year-old Jerusalem resident is under house arrest, Israel Radio reported, and police were planning to ask the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court to order him to report to a police station before the start of each of a number of upcoming gay pride marches countrywide.

Tel Aviv’s Gay Pride Week begins Sunday, with its annual parade scheduled for next Friday.

Schlissel carried out his attack last July, three weeks after he was released from prison, where he served a 10-year sentence for perpetrating a similar though nonfatal attack in 2005.

In the weeks after his release, he had openly declared his hostility to the Gay Pride event and claimed there was an imperative to stop it.

Ahead of the parade, Jerusalem Police intelligence officers had named six individuals, four men — including Schlissel — and two women, who were suspected of planning acts of violence against the marchers. Despite these warnings, police did not take any measures to monitor Schlissel.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said shortly after the stabbing spree that Banki’s murder could “undoubtedly” have been prevented.

Last month, the Jerusalem District Court convicted Schlissel of Banki’s murder and six counts of attempted murder for the injuries he caused other people, as well as aggravated assault.

The judges lashed out at the performance of the Jerusalem Police, writing:“The intolerable ease with which the accused was able to reach the marchers and carry out his scheme is incomprehensible. Lessons that were supposed to have been learned from the Gay Pride march in 2005 were not learned, the writing was on the wall, and no one read it.”

An internal police probe into the stabbing published in September called for six senior officers to be removed from their posts and another four to be reprimanded.

Among those to be removed over the attack were the heads of the Moriah police substation, the head of the Jerusalem intelligence branch of the police, the head of the operations branch for the area of the parade, the head of intelligence for the Moriah substation, the officer in charge of securing part of the heavily guarded parade route, and the head of the coordination division.

One more police officer, who was in charge of guarding the area of the route where the stabbing took place, was also recommended to be removed.

In February 2016 the Jerusalem Municipality announced that the capital’s historic Zion Square, slated for a complete overhaul, was to be renamed Tolerance Square in Banki’s memory.