JERUSALEM: Ultra-Orthodox Protest But Pride Parade Goes On Without Injuries

Yesterday's gay pride parade in Jerusalem was met by three separate protests by the city's Ultra-Orthodox Jews, but the event finished without significant incidents or injuries.

It was homosexual rights vs. religion on Thursday in Jerusalem as some 3,000 Israelis joined a gay pride parade, marching with colorful balloons and dancing in the streets. The march infuriated Orthodox Jews. But Yonatan Gher, one of the parade organizers, says there is no religious monopoly on the Holy City. "The reason the march takes place in Jerusalem is not to upset anyone," said Gher. "We're here because we're Jerusalemites. This is our city as much as anybody else's." Ultra-Orthodox Jews held counter-demonstrations, carrying signs that read: "Sick perverts, get out of Jerusalem." Many agree with this man who says that the Bible describes homosexuality as an "abomination." "The promotion of a gay lifestyle in the streets of Jerusalem, which is the holiest city for the Jewish people, [and] for the other religions - for Muslims, for Christians - it's a provocation" said one Orthodox Jewish man.

The planned donkey parade by Jerusalem's deputy mayor was downgraded to a donkey puppet event, when he was denied permission to bring the animals through the city's center.

Jerusalem's Deputy Mayor Plans Donkey Parade To Counter Gay Pride

Angry over the planned gay pride parade in Jerusalem, the city's ultra-Orthodox deputy mayor wants to parade 50 donkeys through the city on the same day.

"This expresses what we think -- that this is a beastly act," Rabbi Yitzhak Pindrus, who represents the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party on the city council, told the Ynet news website. His spokesman Menahem Zaide declined to link the donkey march to the parade, saying only: "Donkeys also have rights to be recognised as couples. We are in favour of donkey rights," he told AFP. However, Zaide said they were still awaiting permission from the agriculture ministry. About 1,000 people were expected to take part in the pride parade under heavy security.

In 2007 marchers at Jerusalem Pride were pelted with eggs and human feces by ultra-Orthodox protesters.

PhoboQuotable - Rabbi Yehuda Levin

"The latest outrage, the sodomy celebration in Jerusalem, specifically planned to begin in an ultra-religious neighborhood, is nothing less than the spiritual rape of the Holy Land with the active support of the Israeli State, her courts and her police. This is just the next stage of confronting and silencing religious opposition locally and worldwide.

"This Perversion Pride Parade would never be countenanced in Mecca, the Vatican, Karbala, or Moscow, where the mayor and Russian Orthodox Patriarch vigorously oppose it. The 'brave' 'progressive' Israeli Government and Supreme Court would never dream of allowing the parade route to include Arab East Jerusalem or the Al Aqsa Mosque. The Moslem community locally and worldwide would never tolerate this. Just ask Arab Knesset member Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur. Thus we see the Israeli elite treating religious Jews with less respect than their Arab co-citizens." - Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for the Rabbinical Council of America.

ISRAEL: Jerusalem Police Reverse Ban On Gay Pride March To Knesset

Jerusalem police have reversed their ban on a planned gay pride parade route that is scheduled to conclude at the Knesset.

A number of weeks ago, the police recommended that the parade be held on the same route as it was last year, citing security concerns. This year, the Jerusalem pride parade will mark the one-year anniversary of the slaying at the gay youth center in Tel Aviv and will be billed as Israel's national gay pride parade. For this reason, the organizers insisted that the parade conclude at the doorsteps of Israel's legislative branch. Jerusalem Open House Executive Director Yonatan Gher said, "The parade route to the Knesset, on the anniversary of the murder, is the proper route to symbolize what the parade is demanding – full equal rights for the gay community in Israel and an end to the incitement, violence, and silencing that we experience everyday."

Marching in the Jerusalem parade will be the mother of one of the young people murdered during the attack on the Tel Aviv LGBT youth center.