Thursday June 25, 2009

Jerusalem gay parade ends peacefully

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A gay pride parade in Jerusalem ended peacefully on Thursday but the planned opening of a municipal parking lot on the Jewish sabbath will test the delicate balance between religious and secular Jews in the city.

The annual parade has touched off anti-gay protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews in the holy city in the past. But this year they limited their protest to holding street prayers wearing brown sacks in line with a biblical mourning tradition.

Participants hold a giant flag during the gay pride parade in Jerusalem June 25, 2009. (REUTERS/Darren Whiteside)

Police deployed some 1,500 officers -- albeit far fewer than in recent years -- along the route, which avoided neighbourhoods where traditionally black-garbed ultra-Orthodox Jews live.

Many devout Jews, Muslims and Christians view homosexuality as an abomination. In 2005, an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed and wounded three participants in the gay march. He is serving a 12-year sentence.

Amit Lev, a spokesman for the gay rights group behind the parade, said organisers had negotiated with ultra-Orthodox leaders in Jerusalem after "long years of silence" between the two communities.

"We've agreed that violence doesn't serve any of us or any of our goals," he said.

But tensions have been stirred in the city over plans by Jerusalem's Israeli mayor, Nir Barkat, to reopen a public parking lot on Saturday, a move that could draw more traffic into the city on the Jewish sabbath.

Jewish religious law bans travel on the sabbath, and Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox community has negotiated with city authorities arrangements that limit or ban traffic in their neighbourhoods on Saturdays.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews held stone-throwing protests three weeks ago when the municipal parking lot was last opened on a Saturday and authorities fear a repeat of the violence this weekend.

(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon)

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