Jerusalem Pride, 2009 Flickr photo by nele36

The marchers – between 2,000 and 4,000 of them – waved rainbow and Israeli flags and donned rainbow dresses, shirts and headbands along the route from Liberty Bell Park to Independence Park via King David Street, JTA reports.

The event was far more sedate than the huge pride parade and festival held a week ago in the more secular city of Tel Aviv. Men who doffed their shirts in Jerusalem were promptly asked to put it back on, AFP reports.

According to Haaretz, one marcher scolded another for removing his shirt, saying, “This is Jerusalem.”

In past years, the LGBT pride event in the holy city provoked violent protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews and extremists. But this year, except for one egg-throwing incident, there were no clashes, Haaretz reports.

Police said they arrested the egg-tossing protester.

Thousands march in peaceful Pride parade in Jerusalem [contd.]

Reform Jews participated in the pride parade in large numbers, Reuters reports. One member said, “We want to show that Reform Judaism is open. There’s more than one way to be Jewish. We can’t follow egalitarianism in one sense and not another.”

In 2005, an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed three participants and was subsequently sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The following year the venue was switched to a sports stadium following violent protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews and rightwing opponents who consider the event a profanity of the Holy City.

But police believed the controversial event would run smoothly this year because leaders of the ultra-Orthodox community - who in past years have led anti-gay protests - decided not to protest. They claimed they wanted to avoid exposing their young people to the issue of homosexuality, Haaretz reports.

Some orthodox neighborhoods far from the parade held gatherings with demonstrators wearing sacks and covered in ash to symbolize mourning, Reuters reports.

As a result, only 1,600 police officers were assigned to the parade, compared with 12,000 in 2006.

In Reuters “AxisMundi Jerusalem” blog, Erik Solomon reports that some tension was apparent at the parade despite the relative peace:

Despite the cheerful singing and colorful banners, many participants who attend both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem’s gay pride parades, say the Israeli parade in Jerusalem, a holy city for the religious, is markedly different from a similar parade in the secular coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv, held a couple of weeks ago.

One Israeli marcher said Jerusalem, as a much more politically divided city, has a very politicized pride parade: “In Tel Aviv, the Gay Pride parade is more of a party. But in Jerusalem, it’s much more political, like a protest.”

Several marchers echoed this sentiment. Na’ama, a member of Bat-Kol, an organization for Orthodox Jewish lesbians, agreed, adding: “It’s not like a protest-it is a protest. I don’t want to take it for granted that I can walk here. But we also have to fight for other rights, like the right to marry. And we still have a struggle with the rest of the Orthodox community to get them to accept us.”

A small cluster of demonstrators against the parade gathered across the street from the city-center park where a small festival was held. Some held up copies of the Torah, and signs offering “help” for homosexuals.

Solomon offered this portrait of the protesters for Reuters:

Most offered rather extreme interpretations of the gravity of allowing the pride parade. Daisy Stern, holding a sign saying “No Flags of Fags Here”, said she was “protesting and fighting this horrible trend that persists in this city, which is funded and masterminded by our enemies who don’t want to see a Jewish land and this is a way to break our spirits”.

Source: Thousands marched in peaceful Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem | Haaretz
The Many Sides of Jerusalem’s Gay Pride Parade | Reuters
Jerusalem Gay Pride parade is toned down | AFP

country_israel, area_middleeast, gay pride