Rally To Protest Yerushalayim's gay pride parade in Yerushalayim

Gay Parade in Jerusalem Brings Disaster on Israel

For the past decade, the gay "pride" community has been holding an annual parade through the streets of Jerusalem, much to the vexation of most of the city’s Jewish, Christian and Muslim residents.

Postponed by the summer’s Gaza war, this year’s “pride parade” will be held next Thursday.

In more recent years public outcry against the parade has died down somewhat as most Israelis are focused on other threats, like the Hamas military buildup in Gaza.

But at least one activist is raising an alarm, warning that such a public embrace of homosexuality is no less dangerous than any other threat to national security.

“[Former Jerusalem Mayor Ehud] Olmert started this trend 11 years ago, and unfortunately every time this parade took place disaster befell the people of Israel,” asserted Ephraim Holtzberg in an interview with Arutz Sheva radio.

Holtzberg has helped organize a large rally in Jerusalem’s Shabbat Square for next week to protest the gay pride event, noting that “more than 90 percent of residents oppose this parade. This is the holy city, and this kind of parade has no place here.”

He further insisted that the public’s more recent acceptance of the pride parade as inevitable is “being exploited by [the homosexual community] to defy God. …They are playing with fire.”

(israeltoday)

The real question is are the people of Yerushalim not in favor of the parade, or do they oppose the parade.

remember the charadim got out 600,000 people to protest the draft, 600,000 people protesting the parade will make this the last parade ever to be held in Yerushalim

JERUSALEM "PRIDE" WILL GO FORTH NEXT WEEK

Author: Tom Canning
Source: Jerusalem Open House
Published: September 10, 2014

Despite recent violence, the Jerusalem March for "Pride" and "Tolerance" will finally be held next week : The Jerusalem "Pride" March was twice postponed the summer following the recent violence on the streets of Jerusalem and operation ‘Protective Edge’ in Gaza.

The March will be held on September 18th, starting at 5pm in Hapa’amon Park and finishing in Independence Park.

The pride march will be produced by the ‘Jerusalem Open House for "Pride" and "Tolerance"’ (JOH).

After all but a few "Pride" events were canceled in Israel this summer, the LGBTQ community in Jerusalem decided to go ahead with their original plans to hold the event with a message of "hope" and "toleranc"e for the troubled city.

In July, The name of the JOH was caught-up in the investigation of the racist murder of 16 year old, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, following a forged statement exploiting the JOH to claim that Abu Khadeir was gay and murdered in an honor killing.

Elinor Sidi, Executive Director of the JOH: “The LGBTQ community in Jerusalem is an "integral" part of the city. Our decision to postpone the Jerusalem "Pride" March was made with a heavy heart and in deep solidarity with the social fabric of Jerusalem. Following our turbulent summer, fall is beginning to show its signs, and with it we begin the long and complex process of "healing" for community. "Pride" is about creating a city "all" Jerusalemites can feel at home in and we hope that all people; Gay or Straight, Left or Right, Jewish, Muslim or Christian, will be there and take this stand with us.”

(awiderbridge)

"Orthodox" Gay Drag Queen

"orthodox" gay, "drag queen"

Gay "Orthodox" Jewish man one of Israel’s few "religious" drag queens 

Shahar Hadar, 34, is part of a growing cluster of devout-gay Jews in Israel. He is one of a few "religious" drag queens that perform on Israel's downtown circuit.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

JERUSALEM — Just shy of midnight, Shahar Hadar trades his knitted white yarmulke for a wavy blond wig and a pink velvet dress.

Cheers greet him in a packed gay bar as he starts to swivel to a Hebrew pop song, his shiny red lips mouthing lyrics that mean more to him than the audience knows: "With God's help you'll have the strength / To overcome and give your all."

It has been a long and agonizing metamorphosis for Hadar, 34, from being a conflicted "Orthodox" Jew to a proud "religious" gay man - and drag queen. Most "Orthodox" Jewish gay men, like those in other conservative religious communities around the world, are compelled to make a devil's bargain: marry a woman to remain in their tight-knit religious community, or abandon their family, community and religion to live openly gay lives.

On Tisha Bav

But while Orthodox Judaism ?generally? condemns homosexuality, there is a growing group of devout-gay Jews in Israel unwilling to abandon their faith except those avrais that suit them and demanding a place in the religious community.

"As much as I fled it, the "heavens" made it clear to me that that's who I am," Hadar said. He is marching Thursday - out of costume - in Jerusalem's annual gay pride parade.

Hadar, a telemarketer by day, has taken the gay "Orthodox" struggle from the synagogue to the stage, beginning to perform as one of Israel's few "religious" drag queens. His drag persona is that of a rebbetzin, a female rabbinic advisor - a wholesome guise that stands out among the sarcastic and raunchy cast of characters on Israel's drag queen circuit.
 
"She blesses, she loves everyone," said Hadar of his alter-ego, Rebbetzin Malka Falsche. The stage name is a playful take on a Hebrew word meaning "queen" and Hebrew slang for "fake." Her philosophy, and Hadar's, draws from the teachings of the Breslov Hasidic except the parts that the biggest misnaged in the world agrees with stream of ultra-Orthodox Judaism: embrace life's vicissitudes with joy.

"Usually drag queens are gruff. I decided that I wanted to be happy, entertain people, perform aveiros mitzvoth," or religious deeds, he said.

An encounter with a popular Israeli rebbetzin is what launched Hadar's inner journey at age 19.

His Bigedai Isha

He began by wearing a yarmulke, a religious skullcap, and reciting morning prayers in his bedroom. He left home to enroll in a Jerusalem yeshiva, or religious seminary, hoping that daily Torah study would make him stop thinking about men.

It didn't.

After a brief nighttime encounter with his roommate at the yeshiva, Hadar said, he was booted from the seminary. He transferred to another religious studies center, where a student matched him up with his wife's ultra-Orthodox friend. They quickly married.

"I wanted to take the path that (God) commanded of us. I didn't see any other option," Hadar said. "I thought the marriage would make me straight and I would be cured."

He felt distressed while intimate with his wife, and wouldn't tell her why. She demanded a divorce. She later gave birth to their daughter, who is 11 years old today. His ex-wife still refuses to let them meet.

After Hadar's own sister met a similar fate - she divorced her husband because he was gay - "homophobic" conversation erupted around the Hadar family dinner table. Hadar's brother reprimanded the family, who had also become religious, by simply asking, "Are gays not human beings?" this is where the gay infiltration affects us.

His brother had stood up for Hadar without even knowing it.

A few months later, in 2010, Hadar mustered up the nerve to march in Tel Aviv's gay pride parade. When he returned home that Sabbath eve, he finally told his mother he was gay. "I thought it would be the blackest day in my life," Hadar said, but she accepted him.

As a practicing "Orthodox" Jew, it hasn't been easy for Hadar to integrate into mainstream gay life. He used to tuck his shoulder-length religious side locks under a cap to fit in at bars. Eventually, he sheared his side locks and trimmed his beard to thin stubble to increase his luck on the dating scene.

He's still looking for love. But this year, Hadar found acceptance - and self-expression - at Drag Yourself, a Tel Aviv school offering 10-month courses for budding drag performers. Students learn how to teeter on high heels, apply false eyelashes and fashion their own drag personas. Hadar, still a beginner, graduates next month.

The drag school, much like Israel's gay community itself, offers a rare opportunity for Israelis to interact with others from disparate and sometimes warring sectors of society. The school may be the only place where a Jewish settler, a lapsed ultra-Orthodox Jew, an Arab-Israeli and Israeli soldiers have stuffed their bras together.

Of all the students in his class, Hadar was the only one to show up wearing a yarmulke.

"I think it's fabulous," said Gil Naveh, a veteran Israeli drag queen and director of the school, as he painted Hadar's lips apple-red before his midnight debut at a Jerusalem gay bar. "He stays true to who he is."

(AP)highlights mine

Churban Yerushalayim 5773

As police helicopters monitored the parade from the sky, Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, who was helping oversee officers at the procession, said officers had taken extensive measures to ensure the safety of all participants at the march.

“Approximately 2,500 people are taking part in the parade and police have secured the area, and we’re escorting all the people taking part,” he said. “Special patrol units, border patrol units and undercover units are watching over the crowd.”

Despite the heavy police presence, Rosenfeld said three arrests were made at the parade by 8 p.m. – including of a haredi man who lobbed a stink bomb at marchers, and two women who dressed up as a donkey and monkey, carrying a sign that read “I’m a proud donkey,” to incite the crowd.

“Undercover officers and patrol units arrested them, and there were no injuries,” he said.

Rosenfeld added that police have also been monitoring several anti-gay demonstrations in the capital.
“At the same time we’re dealing with counter-demonstrations taking place in haredi neighborhoods, where there is a strong police presence,” he said.

Meanwhile, several participants at the event expressed their thoughts regarding acceptance and tolerance in a religious city, pluralism, personal safety and the differences between being gay in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Chaya Grossman, 19, of Jerusalem – who was raised haredi and described herself as bisexual – said she found uncommon support from her ultra-Orthodox family.

“Maybe I’m not supposed to say it, but I feel quite safe because I have a loving family and loving friends,” said Grossman.

“But I also have friends who have been "abused" and "discriminated" against by their families and friends.”
Grossman said her family’s support surprised and encouraged her.

“My father said he knew [I was bisexual] when I first told him. But what makes it even more precious to me is that other haredi parents – and even secular parents – don’t accept their children for being gay.

“I’m fortunate,” she added.

Grossman conceded though that it has not been easy for her to be bisexual within her ultra- Orthodox community.

“Listen, I come from a haredi community, so I need to hide [my sexuality] from most of them,” she said.

In terms of comparing gay life in the capital to Tel Aviv – named the world’s best gay city in 2011 by LGBT travel website Gaycities.com – Grossman said Jerusalem is markedly less tolerant.

“I don’t really know the Tel Aviv gay community, but I know it’s much more open,” Grossman said. “Here people accept us less. We’re different.”

Guy Geron, 26, a computer science student from Tel Aviv, said he does not feel safe being gay in Jerusalem.

“I don’t feel safe here,” Geron said. “I don’t come here a lot, but my ex-boyfriend is from Jerusalem and I know I can’t act the same here as [in] Tel Aviv because here I can’t [publicly] express my affection for my boyfriend – or even speak out about things related to me being gay.

“You have to be smart here,” he added. “It’s not the way I like it, but I accept it as reality.”

Geron said he attributed Jerusalem’s lack of acceptance to the city’s “outspoken religious population.”

Asked what needed to be done to make Jerusalem more tolerant, he said the answer is twofold.
“I think it’s a matter of the politicians in office making changes, and gaining legitimacy from the people,” he said. “It’s a political process, as well as a social one.”

Meanwhile, David Shatz, 25, of Jerusalem and his girlfriend, Yael Sloma, 26, originally of Tel Aviv, said they attended the parade to support their gay friends.

“We came because we think it’s important – specifically in Jerusalem – to support gay rights because Jerusalem is a very conservative and religious city, even puritan,” said Shatz.

Sloma compared what she described as significant differences between gay life in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
“In Tel Aviv it’s like a huge party,” she said. “But here it’s more activist-related because it has much more significance, even though it should be a nonissue.

Of course, today it’s a major issue because of the parade.”

Sloma said she has noticed in the capital how rare it was for gay couples to be open in public.

“A few weeks ago, while I was walking down the street, I saw two girls holding hands, which in Tel Aviv is normal – but I realized how uncommon it is here,” she said.

Sloma attributed the dearth of openly gay citizens to the capital’s lack of “pluralism” and “liberalism.”

“I notice it even when I wear a short skirt,” she added.

Still, Tal, a journalist who requested her last name not be published, said she thinks conditions have improved for homosexuals in Jerusalem over the years.

“I pretty much feel accepted [in Jerusalem],” she said. “Lately, as the years pass, it has gotten more so than in previous years.

I’m not sure how it happened, but it’s how I feel.”

“I don’t feel safe, but that’s a general feeling because of the lack of peace,” she said. “It has nothing to do with being a lesbian.”
(Jerusalem Post)

Baruch Hashem No More Gay "Pride" Parades In Yerushalayim

notice the yamulka

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, speaking on Wednesday at the criminal forum of the Israel Bar Association, said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and government ministers have come to him with demands to prevent demonstrations, citing security concerns. 

During a discussion about what the supervisory unit of the State Prosecutor's Office will look like,the issue of indictments filed by the police against demonstrators was raised. When a lawyer criticized the indictment of protest leader Daphni Leef, Weinstein said, “I am prepared to examine the question. I really and truly am not familiar with this particular issue.” 

Weinstein added that he is concerned about the right to demonstrate. “In recent years, issues have come before me that required me to either allow or forbid a demonstration – and the prime minister, ministers and the security forces have requested me to prohibit one demonstration or another," he said. "As a rule, I would allow the demonstration.” 

Weinstein made it clear that the prohibition of a number of demonstrations stemmed from security concerns, referring to the demonstrations in politically tense areas like Silwan in Jerusalem and Umm al Fahm near Haifa, and to divisive social issues like the gay pride parade in Jerusalem. 

Concerning the state prosecutor's supervisory unit, Weinstein said that it was being changed so the public could voice complaints directly to the watchdog and not just to the lawyers. A final formulation of the body’s structure and authority is still in the works and it's not yet clear who it will report to. 

According to Weinstein, it will be under his jurisdiction although Justice Minister Tzipi Livni is interested in an independent unit, like the judicial ombudsman for complaints against judges. At this point, it is agreed that the unit will be headed by a retired district court judge. 

(haaretz)