Pride parade killer hospitalized after provoking prison fight

Yishai Schlissel, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish man serving a life sentence for the murder of 16-year-old Shira Banki at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade last year, is being kept away from other inmates at the Ayalon Prison after a physical altercation with a fellow prisoner left him hospitalized.

Last month, Schlissel tore up photos of another inmate’s daughters he had hanging in his cell, saying the girls were “dressed immodestly.”

Enraged, the prisoner beat Schlissel until prison guards separated the two. Schlissel was hospitalized for unspecified injuries.

The Ayalon Prison warden placed Schlissel in solitary confinement for a number of days as a disciplinary measure.

After an evaluation by prison officials, the warden decided to give Schlissel a separate cell citing his volatile behavior.

The Israel Prisons Service confirmed the decision in a statement, saying that Schlissel’s “taunts, inappropriate behavior and damage he caused another inmate’s property” necessitated the move.

Participants in the gay pride parade in Jerusalem flee stabber Yishai Schlissel, July 30, 2015. (Photo: Koby Shotz)

On July 30, 2015, Schlissel went on a stabbing spree at the annual Jerusalem march, killing Banki and injuring six others.

Schlissel had been released from prison weeks earlier, after serving 10 years in prison for a similar but non-fatal attack at the 2005 gay pride parade. Days before the stabbing, Schlissel penned a handwritten anti-gay manifesto in which he called the pride march “shameful” and “blasphemous,” and alluded to plans to perpetrate another attack.

At his June sentencing hearing, Schlissel broke his silence in court for the first time, and said that religious fervor drove him to carry out his crime.

“The parade is what brings the terror attacks and the intifadas down on us, it’s what causes God’s wrath,” he told the court. “I strive to act out of my love for God, and gay pride parades are a source of hatred toward God and toward the Jewish people.”

After his arrest, Schlissel repeatedly refused legal counsel, saying he did not recognize the legal standing of the court since it does not abide by Jewish law.