J’Lem Pride Kicks Off

Despite weeks of protest and legal battles, Jerusalem’s gays started their gay pride parade through the holy city. Only 2,000 queers turned out for the 500 meter march, but the city sent 7,000 coppers to maintain order. And good thing, too: they detained an Orthodox man who planned on detonating a small bomb:

As the parade kicked off, a 32-year-old haredi resident of Mea She’arim was under arrest after he was caught in possession of an improvised explosive device. The suspect, who was apprehended on Jaffa Road, told police that he planned to set the bomb off in some bushes to scare people away from the parade…

A group of 500 protesters broke through protective barricades, but were stopped by police, who were later pelted with bottles and rocks. About ten other men were arrested for disrupting the fag’s festivities.


All the pro-gay protections have more than the Haredi up in arms. One college student fumed:

There is a no reason why the whole city has to shut down. It shows a complete lack of organization and knowledge about how to manage this sort of event. It is not possible that whenever there is an event of this sort the whole city has to shut down and everyone’s routine has to be disrupted.

Well, maybe if people would stop throwing stones and trying to detonate bombs, the police wouldn’t have to get involved. Did you ever think about that, college student? Hmm? Hmmmm?

Hundreds protest against Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem [Haaretz]
Thousands attend pride parade [Ynet News]