Jerusalem’s gay Pride went ahead on Thursday without the planned accompanying protest parade of donkeys by Deputy Mayor Yitzhak Pindrus.
Police had rejected plans this week by Pindrus to hold the parade of 50 donkeys alongside the Pride event to reflect his views of the gay and lesbian community.
“This expresses what we think – that this is a beastly act,” he said earlier about the Pride celebrations. Instead Pindrus and his group of protestors were allowed to carry cardboard cut-outs of donkeys in protest.
Around 3,000 people participated in the parade, which is hotly opposed by fundamentalist Jewish, Christian and Muslim groups in the city. A woman was attacked by protestors but suffered no injuries while a handful of people were detained by police before they could cause confrontations with the participants.
This year’s event was rescheduled to take place on the one-year anniversary of the fatal shooting attack at a Tel Aviv gay youth centre which remains unsolved.
The parade ended with a memorial service for the two people killed in the attack, Nir Katz (24) and Liz Trobashi (27).
In 2007, police thwarted an attempt by a man to blow up a home-made bomb in the parade.
