Jerusalem to Ban
Annual Gay Pride Parade
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, June 23, 2005
JERUSALEM -- Jerusalem
officials said Thursday they will ban the annual gay pride parade set for next
week, claiming the march would offend many of the holy city's residents.
Organizers of the parade appealed to Israel's Supreme Court to repeal the
ruling, saying the decision was a violation of the homosexual community's
freedom of expression.
The city council, including the mayor, decided ''it is not right to allow the
march or other planned activities to take place in the streets of Jerusalem,
fearing that it will create an uproar, offend a wide sector of city residents
and out of fear of public disturbances,'' Eitan Meir, director general of City
Hall, said in a letter to organizers.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter from city officials.
A majority of Jerusalem's more than 600,000 residents are either Orthodox Jews
or Muslim or Christian Palestinians -- conservative communities that oppose
homosexuality.
The march, scheduled for June 30, was to be the fourth annual parade. The
three previous parades have passed peacefully, attended by several thousand
people and with only minor incidents of vandalism and protest.
The organizers of the parade, the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance,
appealed to the court to allow the march to go ahead.
''The actions of the mayor, and those carrying out his policies, are injurious
to the values of freedom of expression,'' said Open House director Hagai El-Ad.
The city decision comes just weeks after the Jerusalem Open House postponed
WorldPride 2005, a 10-day gathering that includes street parties, workshops and
a gay film festival, until August 2006.
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