Thousands of gay Israelis are to rally in Jerusalem on Friday, defying the risk of violence from religious hard-liners outraged by what they brand an abomination to the sanctity of the Holy City.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews have staged nightly violent protests, aiming to force the cancellation of an already twice-delayed event, downscaled from a World Pride parade that would have gathered gays and lesbians from around the globe.
Promoted by organisers and their supporters as a democratic right to celebrate homosexuality and tolerance, the rally has been castigated as a vile disease, a breach of morality and an incitement to violence by religious hard-liners.
Jerusalem, considered by Israel as its capital, the eastern occupied sector of which Palestinians dream of making their own capital, is deeply polarised — seculars and gays pitted against fundamentalist Christians, Jews and Muslims.
”We are absolutely determined to go ahead with this march,” says Elena Canetti, chairperson of Jerusalem Open House (JOH), the city’s gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender support group for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Her ambitions for a World Pride rally were scrapped because of Israel’s summer exit from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and war in Lebanon in August this year.
”It won’t be provocative. There will no floats, naked men; it will not be next to churches, synagogues or mosques,” she adds, her job as deputy head of a marketing company on hold to promote the parade.
Throughout last week, more than 30 people were arrested and six police officers injured in protests that saw security forces use water cannons to disperse ultra-Orthodox Jews who set light to bus stops, bins and assaulted officers.
Police are gearing up for a marathon security effort that will see 12 000 officers on duty, leave cancelled and reinforcements brought in from other districts in a maximum state of alert last seen on general election day in March.
Police chiefs and gay organisers on Monday agreed to switch the route of the parade from downtown to the ultra-secure zone around various government ministries, the Supreme Court and central bank, far from religious sites.
Despite accelerating protests ahead of the march, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ruled on Sunday that the rally — the fifth gay march in Jerusalem — should go ahead ”so that the principle of freedom of expression is respected”.
Pride celebrations around the world attract between 15-million and 20-million. The first World Pride, in Rome in 2000, was attended by a quarter-million people.
Homosexuality was legalised in Israel only 18 years ago and Palestinian society still has a zero-tolerance policy on the issue.
”This isn’t the Gay Pride parade but the disgrace parade and we shouldn’t be proud to hold it,” says MP Yaakov Cohen, from the religious United Torah Judaism party, calling on police to cancel it ”to prevent unpleasant things”.
”This shouldn’t be legitimised and our youth shouldn’t be exposed to this. Obviously, no one would want his son to catch this disease.”
MP Shlomo Ben Yizri, from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, also warns against the risk of violence, vowing to take every legal step to stop ”these deviants”.
”We believe God will be very upset with us and we must do everything to stop them so that God does not punish all people in Jerusalem. I suppose it [the parade] will be very dangerous. It will be very terrible; there will be violence,” he said, speaking in English.
Canetti admits that most gay, bisexual and transgender people attached to the JOH, including Palestinians, are ”in the closet”, reluctant to live openly out of fear of retribution in a deeply traditional city where religion dominates.
”Palestinians won’t march … I can say, regretfully, because of their culture and society has certain rules and norms, it’s very hard for them to take part.
”These are ideas that belong to the 19th century and backwards. It is a pity that extreme radical rabbis have incited violence and converted us into monsters,” says the Uruguayan-born campaigner. — Sapa-AFP