Gay March in Jerusalem Recognizes Pride and Tolerance
Homosexuals celebrated the 10th annual March for Pride and Tolerance in Jerusalem Thursday, uniting with social workers, doctors and over 4,000 others who were standing up for their respective causes.
Three separate events converged on Thursday in Israel’s capital city--a doctor’s march, a housing protest and the gay pride parade.
Police were on high alert due to groups opposing the pride march, according to The Jerusalem Post. Law enforcement authorities were forced to interrupt a cavalcade of demonstrators attempting to enter the city on four donkeys.
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The groups with donkeys came declaring homosexuality “bestial,” The Jerusalem Post reports. However Yonatan Gher, the parade organizer and executive-director of the Jerusalem Open House, said the event was the only time homosexuals could stand against such opposition.
“This is one day of the year that we can march through the streets exactly as who we are and the way we are, and we’re marching hand in hand with many of Israel’s struggling communities,” Gher said to the Jerusalem Post. “Our march is not about sexual identity versus religious identity, but is about our identity as Jerusalemites to march in this city.”
The event, named “Intertwined Paths” as a representation of the homosexual community joining with other struggling groups in Jerusalem, had the least amount of violence since beginning 10 years ago.
Only one arrest was made, involving protesters who threw stink bombs at those marching in the parade.
Although it did not involve violence, The Jerusalem Post reported that a few hundred Orthodox Jewish protesters rallied against the march a few minutes away from the parade in the Kikar Hashabat area of Jerusalem.
Rabbi Ephraim Holtzber, an organizer of the protest, said his people had an obligation to protest.
“This is not San Francisco, the capital for homosexuals,” Holtzber said, according to The Jerusalem Post. “This is the Holy City, and the event is a provocation against the entire world, all the religions, and God.”
