ISRAEL: Jerusalem Police Reject Proposed Route For Gay Pride Parade

Jerusalem police have rejected the proposed route for this year's gay pride parade, which was to culminate at the Knesset, where activists would honor the two people were murdered at a Tel Aviv LGBT youth center last year in a still unsolved shooting spree. Police reportedly rejected the route because it also passes by an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva.

"The Jerusalem Police's decision in essence prevents the Jerusalem Open House and the gay community in Israel from marching in the center of Jerusalem, as is done in all the rest of Israel's major cities, along a publicly visible route that is not hidden from the eyes of the public," Uziel wrote. "The requested route does not pass through any areas that are sensitive to the nature of the parade. In this decision, the police severely violate the freedom of speech and the right to march. The decision isn't logical, isn't proportional and is not based on relevant arguments, as required by law," she added. "It is time to return the Jerusalem Gay Pride parade to its rightful place, as a part of the fertile Jerusalemite fabric of life."

In previous years members of Israel's ultra-Orthodox sect Haredi have pelted Jerusalem's pride-goers with eggs and bags of human excrement, resulting in hundreds of arrests.

(Tipped by JMG reader Huntington)