Israel's Rabbis speak out against Gay Pride Parade: God is testing us
Pastor Dale Morgan
Israel's Rabbis speak out against Gay Pride Parade: God is testing us*
Jerusalem's Open House announces city's Gay Pride Parade to be held next
week, but says 'this year's parade will be modest event held to help
decrease tension, violence of previous years'. Meanwhile rabbis holding
protest rally say, 'Righteous men killed in Holocaust because they
didn't protest'
Ronen Medzini
Latest Update: 06.17.08, 00:28 / Israel News
The Open House in Jerusalem announced on Monday that the city's Gay
Pride Parade would take place on Thursday of next week, with the theme
of "free love". This year marks the parade's seventh anniversary in
Jerusalem, and it has become well-known for sparking annual controversy
among the ultra-Orthodox communities in the city.
The parade will begin in Jerusalem's Independence Park at 4 pm on June
26, and end in Liberty Bell Park with a ceremony presenting the gay
community's call for equal rights, with the hope of promoting love and
tolerance in the country's capital.
"This year we expect the parade to be accepted peacefully by Jerusalem,"
CEO of the city's Open House Jonathan Ger told Ynet. "We are working
very hard with this aspiration in mind. It will be a meaningful and
modest event in the center of Jerusalem, held in a way that will help to
decrease the tension and violence surrounding the parade in the past few
years."
Ger elaborated on the parade's significance: "I grew up in this city
believing I was the only homosexual here, and the other members of the
community also grew up in this manner.
"The parade is intended first and foremost to tell youths that we are
not alone. We constitute ten percent of the city's population, and we
are marching in order to strengthen each other and to be proud of who we
are. As long as I am unable to walk hand in hand with my boyfriend
through the streets without hearing abusive calls, this parade is
necessary."
The religious community has already launched its protest against the
parade. Two weeks ago religious and ultra-Orthodox Knesset Members met
in order to form a unified front against the event planned. "The Pride
Parade in Jerusalem is insufferable," the MKs determined.
The participants, including National Union (NRP)'s MKs Uri Ariel, Arieh
Eldad, and Zvi Hendel, and United Torah Judaism's MKs Meir Porush and
Moshe Gafni decided on a number of parliamentary, public, and legal
steps set to sabotage the event. They also considered appealing to the
High Court of Justice and holding numerous protest rallies running
parallel to the parade.
One such protest rally took place on Monday, in the ultra-Orthodox
neighborhood of Beit Israel. Rabbi David Batzri called on the
participants in the rally to "be zealous towards the lord, and to hate
those that fail and the evil that they create. Zeal is atonement for all
of Israel."
Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, who has headed the fight against the Jerusalem
parade during previous years and succeeded in sweeping much of the
ultra-Orthodox community into the protests, also spoke at the rally in
Beit Israel. This year, however, he had to make do with only the few
dozen demonstrators present.
"I asked my rabbi: How were so many righteous men murdered during the
Holocaust – because they did not protest," Sternbuch called down from
the balcony on which he stood. "Whoever does not protest is confessing
with silence."
He explained the reason for the parade to his followers: "The lord is
testing us in this world and wants to see if we protest. If we don't,
there will be disasters. We are alone and they are many, but we are more
in quality. They are evil criminals that have no place with the God of
Israel."