Despite a police
order against any public protests, a group of about 200
gay rights activists held a vigil in a central Jerusalem
park on Thursday, the fifth day of WorldPride events
in the city, The Jerusalem Post reports. The protest took place
after a long-planned pride parade in connection with the
WorldPride festival was canceled due to the war in
Lebanon.
The heavily
guarded demonstration was allowed to take place after
organizers agreed to adhere to police conditions for the
gathering, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby
told the Post. But the evening event in Jerusalem's
Liberty Bell Park was marred after a group of far-left
anarchists joined the gathering, then began
waving placards against the war in Lebanon and
shouting slogans against the Israel Defense Forces.
The low-key
protest, which was one fifth the size organizers had
planned, came near the culmination of the weeklong
WorldPride event in Jerusalem. A huge red banner read
"Jerusalem is for all," while rainbow-colored placards
included such slogans as "The path to God is not
always straight" and "Senseless hatred."
"We believe that
the holiness of Jerusalem is increased by this city
being the center of tolerance and coexistence," said Rabbi
Ayelet S. Cohen, 32, who lead a delegation from New
York City's Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, which is
the world's largest gay and lesbian synagogue. Cohen
added that organizers of the event understood that the tone
had to be "appropriate" during wartime, when "the
voices of tolerance and hope are all the more
essential."
According to the
Post, some Israeli motorists shouted at the
protesters to go to Lebanon or to
the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip. "At a time when
Jewish blood is being spilt in Lebanon, all that these
self-indulgent, narcissistic, selfish, perverted
people can think about is engaging in sodomy," said
New York rabbi Yehuda Levin, of the Orthodox Judaism
groups Rabbinical Alliance of America and the Union of
Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada, who
spearheaded an international campaign against the
parade.
The international
gay festival, which was originally scheduled to take
place last year and had already been postponed until August
due to last summer's Israeli pullout from the Gaza
Strip, has been widely criticized by a coterie of
Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious leaders in
Jerusalem and around the world as a deliberate affront and
provocation to millions of believers around the world.
(The Advocate)
