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Fundamentalist Jew Attacks Gay Pride Marchers in Jerusalem

The call it The City of Peace. They call it The Holy City. Well, you'd never guess it by what goes down there.

An Ultra-Orthodox (read fundamentalist) Jewish man stabbed three participants in a gay pride parade in Jerusalem yesterday. Two men and one woman were attacked by the man who ran into the midst of the parade.

Police took the stabber into custody. They also arrested 13 other religious protesters, for disturbing the peace. The police reported that some 200 religious protesters (others put the number of protesters at closer to 1000) gathered at the parade's starting point, the downtown offices of the Jerusalem Open House, the gay and lesbian community center that organized the fourth annual parade. The fundamentalist Jews threw stink bombs, bottles of urine and bags of feces into the crowd and shouted insults in an attempt to halt the parade.

The march proceeded despite the violence. "It took many years for Jerusalem to have a Gay Pride parade," participant Moshik Toledano, 39 told Haaretz, "but once it happens, it makes no difference if the ultra-Orthodox come here and try to stop it."

Gay.com says Hagai El-Ad, Jerusalem Open House Executive Director, linked the attack with the recent public comments from the city's Mayor. "This heinous attack is a direct result of Mayor Lupoliansky's ongoing campaign of incitement. Yesterday's Pride events focused on a message of love and tolerance – and these values cannot be obstructed by violence."

The march itself included more than 5000 persons. The parade started on Ben Yehuda Street at 6:30 p.m. with a stream of colorful balloons and music. For the marchers in the parade, the dress code was anything rainbow.

"It's hard to be gay, but this event is about making people feel proud about themselves and about who they are as a gay individual," said a young gay Palestinian man from Ramallah. "It's surreal," he said. "That I cross over the checkpoints to come here. It's as though, as a Palestinian, many people don't consider me human, and then as a gay man many people here don't consider me human."

"It's not easy to be gay and part of a group that doesn't approve," a member of Lesbian Religious Females told the Jerusalem Post. "Whether you are Palestinian or a religious Jewish female, it's equally hard to not be accepted by your peers."

In a message read during the rally, Israel's Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz said the Parade was vital not only to lesbian and gay people, but all of society. "Jerusalem Pride is part of the struggle for human rights and freedom for all sectors of society," Pines-Paz said in a message relayed to the crowds. "The heads of the Jerusalem Municipality should self reflect on their contribution to the incitement leading up to today's violence."

In January conservative rabbis, Muslim clerics, and Christian fundamentalists in a rare show of solidarity began efforts to thwart World Pride celebrations. At that time Shlomo Amar, Israel's Sephardic chief rabbi said gays were "creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable." Not to be outdone, Sufi sheik Abdel Aziz Bukhari said, "We can't permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty. This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem."

"In light of the violence we have seen here today, it goes to show how much farther we have to go to turn Israel into a liberal and tolerant state,"

MK Roman Bronfman told the Jerusalem Post. Sources: Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, Gay.com (UK), 365 Gay.com, Advocate