JERUSALEM: Thousands march towards the Israeli parliament to demand gay rights

Record ID: 277931

  • Title: JERUSALEM: Thousands march towards the Israeli parliament to demand gay rights
  • Date: 1st August 2013
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (AUGUST 1, 2013) (REUTERS) START OF GAY PRIDE RAINBOW FLAG FLOATING VARIOUS OF PEOPLE MARCHING PEOPLE MARCHING, WOMAN HOLDING BANNER READING 'PUTIN KISS MY FABULOUS ASS' PEOPLE MARCHING POLICEMEN STANDING, PEOPLE MARCHING PEOPLE HOLDING BANNERS WOMEN PLAYING MUSIC PEOPLE DANCING HAND IN HAND PEOPLE HOLDING BANNERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROTESTERS, OFHIR, SAYING:
  • Embargoed: 16th August 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADR50WI01UR0QJJ3492W9VMY9V
  • Story Text: About 2,500 lesbians, gays and their friends marched in Jerusalem on Thursday (August 1) towards the Knesset, Israel's parliament, waving rainbow flags and holding banners demanding more rights.
    "We are here because this is the capital of Israel. It's our city as much as everybody else's, and this is where the Knesset is and this is where the change will come from," said Ofhir, a protester.
    Angered by the parade, about 150 ultra-orthodox gathered in the haredi neighbourhood of Mea Sharim to protest and pray, police said.
    "It causes that God leaves the Jewish nation. In other words, if people want God to be here and the temple to be rebuilt and Messiah to come they cannot do things that are going on in the streets over there. And to the Jewish nation it's, it's very very bad if it goes on, if it continues to on the way it goes on over there, and therefore every single Jew is commanded to announce out loud that we are not part of them and that whatever they are doing is bad and incorrect," said Levi Isaac, and ultra-orthodox man.
    Israeli police said they arrested three ultra-orthodox people: a man who threw a stink bomb at the parade and two women wearing donkey and monkey costumes.
    The "Haredim" - a Hebrew term meaning "those who tremble before God" - make up 10 percent of Israel's eight million population and usually live in in de-facto ghettos of their own making.
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