ANTI-GAY PROTESTS, JERUSALEM (Israel, 2006-2007)

The first Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem, organized in 2002, passed off without incident. In 2006, at the time of the Lebanese-Israeli war, things were different. The planned international Gay Parade was scrapped and even a local version ran into protests from ultra-orthodox Jews and Islamic and Christian clergy. Thousands of orthodox Jews fought with the police daily, until the parade was canceled. To replace it, a homo rally was organized in a hermetically sealed stadium. In 2007 the Gay Pride Parade consisted of nothing more than walking along a heavily-policed, two-kilometer route in Jerusalem. – Wearing jute sackcloth as a traditional sign of grief, ultra-orthodox Jewish rabbis address the crowd during a mass protest march in Jerusalem against a gay parade planned for the city. Religious Jews, ultra-right-wing Jewish activists and religious Muslims promised to prevent the parade from taking place in the Holy City at all costs.