Lupolianski denies he’s trying to stop J’lem gay pride parade
Lupolianski denies he’s trying to stop J’lem gay pride parade
By Etgar Lefkovits,
January 18, 2005
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski has denied reports that he is working behind the scenes to prevent a major international gay pride parade from taking place in the capital this summer.
According to a report on Ynet, Yediot Aharonot’s Web site, Jerusalem’s first haredi mayor, who has called the local annual gay parades "ugly, insulting, offensive and provocative," has promised his 95-year-old rabbi and spiritual mentor, Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, that he will do "everything in his power" to prevent what he called the "World Pride Event" from coming to Jerusalem this summer.
The report also claimed that, besides assuring his rabbi that he would do all he could to prevent the parade, Lupolianski contacted the executive vice president of Agudath Yisrael of America, Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, urging him to use his connection to thwart the "parade of abominations" from taking place in the capital.
But in a statement on Monday, Lupolianski’s spokesman, Gidi Schmerling, said that the report was incorrect, and noted that by law the mayor does not have the authority to approve or prevent city marches.
Lupolianski has previously acknowledged that he would have banned such parades if he had the authority to do so.
The prerogative for issuing permits for marches in the city rests with the police.
A Jerusalem police spokeswoman said Monday that a request for a permit for the parade - which is scheduled to take place as part of a 10-day "Gay Pride Event 2005" celebration in mid-August - had not been made to date.
It was not immediately clear whether this summer’s planned unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which is expected to overburden police manpower, could end up scuttling the planned international gay pride parade, an event which would require massive security.
In a largely conservative city, with a strong religious and traditional makeup, the idea of holding such an international parade in Jerusalem is seen by many, even outside haredi circles, as out of touch with both the spiritual character of the city and well as the sensitivities of its observant residents.
"Even people distant from Jerusalem must grasp that this is a sacred city for the Jewish people, and the world as a whole," Lupolianski said in an interview last year, a day after the previous local gay parade in the city.
But local organizers said Monday that the event, which they said would "definitely take place," opposition or no opposition from the mayor, would be a boon for the city.
"This is a unique opportunity for Jerusalem in terms of its public image, and represents a huge opportunity for the city," said the executive director of Jerusalem’s Gay and Lesbian Center, Hagai El-Ad, whose organization is planning to host the international event.
Jerusalem held its first annual local gay parade only three years ago.
The event, which draws several thousand participants, has been the source of repeated debate each year, with many religious city councillors and a significant number of city residents considering such an event inappropriate for a "holy" city.
When the first local parade was held in the capital in 2002, former Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert withheld city funding for the event, after failing to convince organizers and participants to join Tel Aviv’s parade, where a gay pride procession has been held for years with a much larger turnout.
The Jerusalem Municipality was later ordered by the Supreme Court to pay the organizers NIS 40,000 for the annual event, in keeping with the amount the municipality contributed toward previous city marches.
The last international gay parade, which took place in Rome in 2000, attracted about half a million participants, with organizers expecting tens of thousands of revelers for the Jerusalem event this summer.
This article appeared on January 18, 2005, in THE JERUSALEM POST.