Israeli war overshadows World Pride Jerusalem

Israeli war overshadows World Pride Jerusalem
By Michael Luongo - Contributing writer
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press


Despite threats by religious right-wingers and a war raging only 50 miles away, World Pride took place as planned in Jerusalem, although without the Pride parade that was to have been its centerpiece.

Daphna Stromsa, the health coordinator for Jerusalem’s Open House, called the event “in Israel, a small miracle,” in her speech during the opening day health conference. The ensuing week proved to be a series of challenges—technical, logistical, social and political—before World Pride closed with an apology from the Berlin-based drag group Tigers on Speed for the Holocaust, which led to the creation of modern Israel.

In between there was a full range of events, some with religious themes and others of a decidedly secular nature.

The Pride march was cancelled due to the Jerusalem government’s insistence that it would not be able to provide enough soldiers and police to protect participants, because the war was straining military personal. Last year during the city’s annual gay Pride march, 18-year-old Adam Russo was stabbed by a member of the city’s ultra-Orthodox right-wing Jewish community. With this in mind, Jerusalem Open House director Hagai El-Ad said he “could not guarantee the safety” of anyone at the rally in Liberty Bell Park, which replaced the march.

But only a small handful of religious zealots came anywhere near the event. One was New York Rabbi Yehuda Levin, who has preached against World Pride and petitioned Jerusalem’s leaders to stop the event. He was accompanied by Jerusalem councilwoman Mina Fenton, another opponent. She called World Pride “disgusting in war time,” when “our sons are giving their lives and blood is pouring in the north.” She said gays should help soldiers in Lebanon or families living in bomb shelters in Israel’s north.

Rabbi Lawrence Edwards of Chicago’s congregation Or Chadash attended the rally with his wife Susan Boone. Edwards said that being at World Pride “means solidarity, it means visibility, it means some fun and seeing folks” from the congregation in a new atmosphere. Everything, he said, had so far been “good, except for the war. That’s always the added line.”

The war cast a big shadow over the rally. While many of the 200 people in attendance were against the war, the event was hijacked by several anti-war gay groups unaffiliated with Jerusalem Open House. About 100 sign-waving activists, some wearing rainbow flags like capes, took control of an area near where the organizers had unfurled a hot pink banner proclaiming “Jerusalem is For All.” They refused to cooperate with World Pride’s leaders and police arrested several of them. Due to the chaos they created, the World Pride group ended the event an hour early.

Later that night, at a concert of local rock stars that was part of the World Pride program, El-Ad lamented the muddying of the event’s message, saying, “There are many people here with many different messages.” The rally, he said, was designed to go “against months of incitement with the forces of religion.”

But El-Ad said that World Pride “has planted a seed” in Jerusalem and Israel, and that all the intense work was more than worth it.