Police launch investigation into posters praising gay pride parade stabbings

Last month, Yishai Schlissel killed a 16-year old girl during the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade.

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD
Updated: OCTOBER 23, 2017 14:36
Attack at Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade (photo credit: REUTERS)
Attack at Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Jerusalem Police have launched an investigation into dozens of posters affixed publicly in several ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods throughout the capital praising the stabbings and murder carried out by Yishai Schlissel during the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade last month.
According to police, the posters were distributed by a group called “The Faithful Jewry,” which honored Schlissel for carrying out the July 30 attack that took the life of 16-year-old Shira Banki, and wounded five others.
Religious assailant stabs six at Jerusalem Gay Pride march
Many of the posters featured quotes the Old Testament and blessed Schlissel as a sacrificial emissary from God. “Whoever spills the blood of the wicked is as if he brought a sacrifice,” one stated.
Another compared Schlissel to Phineas, who stabbed an Israelite man and Midianite woman with a spear for having intercourse, which was believed to have ended a plague brought by God for improper sexual relations among the groups.
Schlissel, 50, from Modiin Illit in the West Bank, was released from prison three weeks before the parade after serving a 10-year prison sentence for committing a similar attack at the capital’s Gay Pride Parade in 2005.
Following his arrest last month, he rejected the court’s authority and has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he is fit to stand trial.
Police said on Sunday that officers are questioning suspects believed to be behind the posters, and plan on making arrests in the coming days.