Unsanctioned gay protest takes place during WorldPride

Despite a police order against any public protests, a group of about 200 gay rights activists held a vigil in a central Jerusalem park on Thursday, the fifth day of WorldPride events in the city, TheJerusalem Post reports. The protest took place after a long-planned pride parade in connection with the WorldPride festival was canceled due to the war in Lebanon.

The heavily guarded demonstration was allowed to take place after organizers agreed to adhere to police conditions for the gathering, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby told the Post. But the evening event in Jerusalem's Liberty Bell Park was marred after a group of far-left anarchists joined the gathering, then began waving placards against the war in Lebanon and shouting slogans against the Israel Defense Forces.

The low-key protest, which was one fifth the size organizers had planned, came near the culmination of the weeklong WorldPride event in Jerusalem. A huge red banner read "Jerusalem is for all," while rainbow-colored placards included such slogans as "The path to God is not always straight" and "Senseless hatred."

"We believe that the holiness of Jerusalem is increased by this city being the center of tolerance and coexistence," said Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen, 32, who lead a delegation from New York City's Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, which is the world's largest gay and lesbian synagogue. Cohen added that organizers of the event understood that the tone had to be "appropriate" during wartime, when "the voices of tolerance and hope are all the more essential."

According to the Post, some Israeli motorists shouted at the protesters to go to Lebanon or to the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip. "At a time when Jewish blood is being spilt in Lebanon, all that these self-indulgent, narcissistic, selfish, perverted people can think about is engaging in sodomy," said New York rabbi Yehuda Levin, of the Orthodox Judaism groups Rabbinical Alliance of America and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada, who spearheaded an international campaign against the parade.

The international gay festival, which was originally scheduled to take place last year and had already been postponed until August due to last summer's Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip, has been widely criticized by a coterie of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious leaders in Jerusalem and around the world as a deliberate affront and provocation to millions of believers around the world. (The Advocate)