In Jerusalem, gay pride is conservative too Premium

Despite a history of violence against gay people by an ultra-orthodox Jewish man and threats issued by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, some 10,000 gay rights activists marched peacefully through the city, which hosts holy places of worship of all three Abrahamic faiths

A sigh of relief was released by Israeli Police’s top brass after the Gay Pride and Tolerance Parade in Jerusalem on June 1 ended without disturbances. Police estimated that roughly 10,000 people attended, with 2,000 Israel Police and Israel Border Police personal securing the event. Former Prime Minister and current leader of the Knesset opposition, Yair Lapid, and former IDF Chief-of-Staff, Benny Gantz, spoke briefly at the event. The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, was in attendance as well.

The existence of Jerusalem parade is not to be taken for granted. The 2002 inception was contested by petitions to the Israeli Supreme Court demanding the court stop the parade, which was described as a desecration of Jerusalem, and an insult to the city’s residents, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian and to their co-religionists across the globe.

The residents of the city are largely religious, with the majority its 61% Jewish residents ranging from traditional Mizrahi (Oriental) Jews to Religious Zionists (Orthodox) to Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox). The 39% of Palestinian Arab residents are mostly religious Muslims, with a small Christian minority, and they are by large more culturally conservative than Jews.

At the 2015 Jerusalem parade, Yishai Shilsel, a Hareidi man who had just been released from a 10-month prison sentence for a stabbing attempt at the 2005 parade, stabbed a 15-year-old girl, Shira Banki, to death and wounded six others. He was subsequently fined for compensations and sentenced to life in prison.

Prior to this year’s parade, Hamas issued a statement condemning “the parade of perverts”. Hamas spokesman, Abdel Latif Al-Qanua, stated: “The fascist forces of Occupation are organising a provocative parade in occupied Jerusalem on Thursday. We call on our Palestinian brethren in Jerusalem to put up resistance and protect the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem and Masjid Al-Aqsa”.

A picket protest at the starting point of the march was organised by Lehava, the radical “Love Jihad” activist organisation led by Bentzi Gopstein (Leheva’s central focus is on stopping romantic relationships between young Jewish women and Arab men), in collaboration with Rabbi Tzvi Thau (85), the spiritual leader of the Noam fringe political party, who hold one seat in the Knesset and has under 20,000 supporters nationwide. The protest ran under the slogan “Jerusalem will not be Sodom” and was attended by merely 40 people.

MK (Member of Knesset) Itamar Ben-Gvir, the former far-right activist who is now the Minister of Interior Defense, in charge of the Israeli Police, is a neighbor and long-time friend of Mr. Gopstein. But even he, before assuming office, did not support Mr. Gopstein’s anti-LGBT activism.