JERUSALEM (BP)–A “gay pride” parade scheduled to wind through the streets of Jerusalem today (Nov. 10) was cancelled amid fears that police would not be able to protect the marchers from Palestinian terrorists, Israeli authorities announced.
Police originally had pledged 9,000 officers and soldiers to secure the event, but the Israeli Defense Forces’ recent strikes on the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, which killed 19 Palestinians, may have created a “mood of reprisal,” police officials said, noting that the large gathering of homosexual marchers might be an enticing target. The parade has been an annual event since 2002 and has drawn significant protests each year from Israel’s ultra-Orthodox, Christian and Muslim communities.
However, opposition from what homosexual activists call “right-wing religious fundamentalists” is what parade organizers view as the real reason why police cancelled the parade, the Haaretz newspaper reported. Uzi Even, a nuclear scientist and the first openly-homosexual member of the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, told the newspaper that Israel’s homosexual community had made strides toward equality, but the decision to cancel the parade sent the message that Israel is “being dragged back into the dark world of religion.”
This year’s parade was to have taken place in August, but was cancelled due to the war between Israel and Lebanon. That delay gave opponents more time to mount legal challenges to the event in Israel’s High Court. Violence erupted when the court ruled the parade could proceed.
For weeks, ultra-Orthodox Jews or Haredim have rioted in the streets of Jerusalem, burning tires and setting fires in trash cans to protest the upcoming parade. The protests initially prompted police to reroute the parade away from ultra-Orthodox communities.
One of the opposition leaders, however, told a Jerusalem radio station that violence against participants in the parade, no matter the route, could not be prevented. At last year’s event, an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed three marchers when they stopped to kiss in front of Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue.
“We have to declare a holy war,” Baruch Marzal told the Arutz Sheva radio station, saying it is necessary to “stop crimes in Jerusalem and acts of sodomy.” He said the level of violence toward parade participants this year might well make last year’s stabbing look tame.
A former Southern Baptist representative to Israel said the ultra-Orthodox, who believe Israel receives divine protection, view demonstrations like the parade as an affront to God. Marzal and other opposition leaders have said God could withdraw His hand of protection should the parade take place.
“Of course, the Orthodox are opposed — even violently opposed — to homosexuality,” Jim Sibley, director of the Pasche Institute at the Criswell College in Dallas, said. “They recognize it biblically as an abomination and see it as a desecration of Jerusalem.” Sibley served 14 years in Israel and for 10 years was director of Jewish ministries with the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board.
“Many of the younger generation, however, are much more secular and want to show how far they can go to throw off and violate the taboos of their elders,” Sibley said. “Many are embracing Eastern religions, and at events like this they will be wearing crosses as another sign of their contempt for the old ways.”
The misappropriation of Christian imagery in the parade was a particular concern for the Vatican, which issued a statement of protest that asked Israeli officials to cancel the event. While the Vatican reiterated the right of free expression, it said those rights are “subject to just limits, in particular when the exercise of the right would offend the religious sensibilities of others.”
“It is clear that the gay parade scheduled to take place in Jerusalem will prove offensive to the great majority of Jews, Muslims and Christians, given the sacred character of the city of Jerusalem,” the statement from the Vatican said. Whether or not the request from the Vatican played any part in the decision of Israeli police is uncertain.
One American rabbi, however, said in August that opposition to the parade is proof that Jerusalem was being controlled by people who have “hijacked” three of the world’s peaceful religious traditions. Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum said in a written statement that participants in the parade would be seeking to “reclaim the symbol that Jerusalem is, for what it was originally all about: tolerance, openness, and respect for all human beings regardless of sexual orientation, religion, gender identity or nationality.”
Kleinbaum leads the homosexual-friendly Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in Manhattan, the largest of only a few such synagogues in the world. She also is the North American chair of Jerusalem WorldPride, the organization that planned the parade and other events in conjunction with Jerusalem Open House, a homosexual rights advocacy group.
Opposition to the parade, in fact, has not come just from religious leaders in the country. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said opposition to the parade was a legitimate course of action and that parade organizers were being intentionally “provocative” by holding the event in Jerusalem. The city’s mayor, Uri Lupolianski, also said the homosexual activists’ effort to hold the parade in the city was “a deliberate decision” to garner media headlines. Lupolianski said the march would only result in violence.
Deputy Prime Minister Eliyahu Yishai also filed a protest with the nation’s courts to stop the parade, calling it “an explosive belt which could shake the entire Middle East.”
“Those marchers are hurting the sanctity of Jerusalem and only for spite,” Yishai told a Jerusalem newspaper. “Why don’t these people try and hold the parade in Mecca or at the Vatican?” Yishai said he was unwilling to compromise on his conviction that the parade should not take place in Jerusalem or in Tel Aviv, the nation’s secular capital.
Members of the homosexual community in Israel see Tel Aviv as a much more hospitable environment, according to a group calling itself the Aguda (Association of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgenders in Israel). The group claims it is supported by membership fees and international donations — particularly from the American Friends of the Aguda (AFA) — but also by “government financing for non-profit organizations” and “municipal budgets.” In Tel Aviv, several venues that cater to homosexual tourists allow for open displays of affection and provide live homosexual entertainment.
Despite the apparent acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem remains more traditional. In a recent survey, more than 70 percent of the people in Jerusalem said they opposed the planned homosexual parade.
Parade organizers announced Nov. 9 following the cancellation of the march that they would instead hold a rally at a stadium complex at Hebrew University. The event, which will bring to a close the Jerusalem WorldPride event, will receive protection from 3,000 police officers and soldiers, Israeli authorities said.
In Israeli, homosexuals are drafted and serve in the military as all other persons in Israeli society, but calls for further benefits have fallen on deaf ears in government. Some activists have pushed for “same-sex marriage,” but they face a protracted, uphill battle. Marriage and divorce in Israel are controlled not by politicians but by a national rabbinical council.
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