Tens of thousands throng streets of capital for Jerusalem Pride

In a riot of color and diversity, an estimated 35,000 people took part in the Jerusalem March for Pride and Tolerance on Thursday, with numerous groups, organizations and public officials participating in the event.

The march comes against the background of heavy protest by the LGBT community and large parts of Israeli society against the recently passed surrogacy law that excludes gay men from access to child surrogacy service, and vitriolic opposition to the gay community at large from hardline elements in the national-religious community.

Participants in the Jerusalem parade congregated in Liberty Bell Park amid heavy security, and at 17:30 began wending their way through the city, up King George Street and eventually down to Independence Park close to the city center.

Marchers chanted various slogans as they proceeded along the route, including “There are lesbians and gays in Mea Shearim too,” a reference to the radical haredi neighborhood in Jerusalem, “We are everywhere,” and a political chant against the prime minister as well.

And numerous banners, stickers and posters were worn, waved and flown by the participants, such as “Born this way,” “I want to get married,” a reference to the lack of civil marriage in Israel, and “LGBT-phobia is racism.”

Biblical citations referencing tolerance for the other were also not in short supply, with marchers from the Reform movement holding signs quoting the Biblical passage “Love your fellow as you love yourself,” while others raised banners stating “In the image of God He created me,” a slightly modified version of another famous Biblical line.

One especially political banner held by several people read “LGBTQs against pinkwash, no pride in apartheid.”

Yaniv, 30, one of the participants holding this sign said that Israel has “abused its apparent image of liberalness to the world” to present an image that “everything is wonderful and everyone has equal rights, when that’s not correct for LGBTs and definitely, definitely not correct for Palestinians.”

All the streets on the route were closed to traffic as were several roads leading up it, while large numbers of police, border police, and other security personnel secured the event.

Numerous liberal organizations participated in the march along with various public figures, including the Reform Movement, the Bina Jewish social movement, and many others.

Orthodox rabbi Aharon Leibowitz, a social activist, former member of the Jerusalem Municipal Council for the Yerushalmim Party and currently the party’s chairman of the board, was in attendance to give support to the LGBT community.

“Despite the fact that my presence here can be interpreted as heresy, and although I stand by Jewish law, it’s important for me to stand with a community that doesn’t feel safe, is oppressed and as a municipal leader I feel an obligation to support this communities right to express itself,” Leibowitz told The Jerusalem Post.

Eyal Lurie-Pardes, a gay rights activist in Jerusalem and a candidate for the Jerusalem Municipal Council for Meretz told the Post before the march began that the event held special significance this year in light of the surrogacy law, the antagonism of hardline rabbis against the LGBT community, and what he said was the disparity in public support for gay rights and current government policy.

“The gay community is fed up with the massive gap between the broad and mass support of the general public for LGBT rights which we see in all the polls that are taken, and government policy,” said