Translated material
Jerusalem changes orientation
Jews and Muslims are united by the fight against gays
Jerusalem is in turmoil. Orthodox Jews, more than a third of the city's 706,000 population, are protesting against the Pride Parade, a march of sexual minorities scheduled for Friday. Religious Jews set fire to trash cans and block streets, throw rocks at buses and fight with police. Rabbis are trying to pacify fanatics by calling for nonviolent protests. However, they also say that Jerusalem is not the place for gay pride parades. “Jerusalem is a holy city. Such a procession is a provocation against the religious population. Nobody forbids holding a gay pride parade in secular Tel Aviv, why do you have to go to Jerusalem?” - Rabbi Pinchas Polonsky told Vremya Novostey.“With a shudder we have heard of the insidious plot of a minority of our misguided brothers to commit abomination and baseness, glorifying actions that are categorically contrary to the concepts of modesty in which the children of Israel were raised,” the council of chief rabbis said in a statement yesterday. Representatives of Christianity and Islam supported this protest.
The police are also against the gay pride parade, but for security reasons. "The safety of lives matters more than the threat to free speech," police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. Despite this, government legal adviser Menachem Mazouz supported the right of sexual minorities to march: “Gays and lesbians have the same right to parade as all other Israeli citizens. Banning the Pride Parade due to the threat of violence will have a negative impact on the image Israel".
A few months ago, leaflets appeared in Mea Shearim, a religious district of Jerusalem, offering a reward of 20,000 shekels ($4,500) to anyone who would kill a gay pride parade participant. The leaflet even suggested methods of murder, such as using a Molotov cocktail. Yesterday, several Jews announced that they would carry out a ceremony of the Kabbalistic curse "pulse de nura" ("strike of fire") against the organizers of the procession and the police guarding them. It is believed that such a curse was placed on former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli extremist. They say that the serious illness of another ex-prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is a consequence of a “strike of fire.”
Gays, lesbians and transvestites do not intend to cancel the march. “The gay pride parade is being held in Jerusalem for the fifth time. This is not a provocation, but an sanctioned march of a public group defending its rights,” Israeli journalist and Pride Parade participant Guy Frankovich told VN. “A provocation is just that.” a call to kill the participants of the action. Not only representatives of minorities will come to the parade, but also the secular population, which is protesting against the dominance of religious orders in Jerusalem. If today the secular population gives in in Jerusalem, then tomorrow they will have to leave Tel Aviv. The organizers of the procession promise not to take place.” near places revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims. The parade will take place far from churches and near the parliament buildings and the office of the head of government. The current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and one of his daughters strongly support the association of gays and lesbians. The first parade of this kind was held in Jerusalem in 2002. when Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem.