After more than a week of ultra-Orthodox protests, Israel's gay community has canceled the World Gay Pride Parade scheduled for November 10, 2006, in Jerusalem. According to Israeli radio, organizers will instead hold an indoor demonstration, a stadium, or a university campus.
The official reason for the event's cancellation was the "security situation" in Israel. The police had warned the organizers that they would not be able to provide adequate protection for the parade because most of their officers had been deployed as part of the extraordinary security measures implemented out of fear of reprisals following the Israeli raid on Gaza on November 8, which killed 18 civilians.
From "repubblica.it" of October 9, 2006
JERUSALEM, VATICAN AGAINST GAY PRIDE
""A grave affront to millions of Jews." Arcigay: "Scandalous pressure from Rome.""
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican is asking Israel to cancel the gay parade scheduled for the day after tomorrow in Jerusalem. While awaiting the Supreme Court's ruling on last-minute appeals filed by several parties, the Holy See, through its nuncio to Israel and in an official statement, has asked Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni to take steps to ensure that the Supreme Court decides. Demonstration in the Holy City for Jews, Christians and Muslims prevented.
If not canceled, the event will likely be postponed until next Friday. Policing such a large demonstration amidst a high level of terror alert requires the presence of thousands of officers. "We have made it clear that it will be necessary to postpone it," said Jerusalem Police Chief Ilan Franco.'We can wait a week if the security situation today doesn't allow it"", explained Noa Satat, leader of the gay community in Jerusalem.
The Vatican's note reiterates the Church's position on homosexual persons, as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. "The Holy See expresses its strong disapproval of this initiative because it constitutes a grave affront to the feelings of millions of Jewish, Muslim and Christian believers, who recognize the particular sacred character of the city and ask that their belief be respected.".
In recent days, the announced event had sparked a sort of "intifada" among ultra-Orthodox Jews, determined not to allow the affront to pass. This evening, the press office released the text of the nunciature's statement, expressing "disappointment" at the news of the Gay Pride Parade, and expressing the hope that the government "will use its influence to ensure the decision to authorize it is reconsidered.".
And again: "In light of these elements and considering that on previous occasions religious values have been systematically offended," the note reads, "the Holy See hopes that the matter will be duly reconsidered.".
For a week now, every night, The famous Zealot neighborhood in Mea Sharim, in the heart of Jerusalem, is experiencing hours of revolt. Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox, wearing traditional black frock coats, beards, and hats, clashed with police, threw stones, and set fire to garbage bins to protest a demonstration they saw as blasphemous.
The rabbis of Edah Haredit, an ultra-Orthodox rabbinical court, may launch the fearsome kabbalistic curse of the Pulsa de Nura (the Scourge of Fire, in Aramaic) before Friday against the organizers of the parade and the authorities who made it possible, their spokesman Shmuel Papenheim said today.
The Parade, organized by the association Open House, will take place in the ministry district, far from the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in the city center. The expected 2,000-3,000 protesters will be protected by at least 12,000 police officers. Thousands of zealots are expected to try to prevent it from taking place.
Israel's Chief Rabbinate has called for peaceful protests and "prayer meetings against this abominable march." From Thursday morning, prayer sessions against the Gay Pride parade will take place, particularly at the Western Wall.
""It is scandalous that, as happened in Rome in 2000, the Vatican is pressuring state institutions to ban the second World Pride, which will be held in a few days in Jerusalem," said Arcigay president Sergio Lo Giudice.
""The Vatican," he continues, "confirms that it is the largest international homophobic organization on the planet. We would prefer that the three great monotheistic religions reach an agreement on world peace rather than on the fight for the human rights of homosexuals," Lo Giudice concludes.