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Last update - 04:51 08/11/2006
Ultra-Orthodox protesters hurl rocks at Jerusalem Mayor Lupolianski
By Haaretz Service

Ultra-Orthodox protesters pelted Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski with stones as he attempted to leave an auditorium in the religious neighborhood of Mea She'arim on Tuesday.

Demonstrators threw rocks and eggs at Lupolianski and his deputy mayor, Yehoshua Pollack, as they exited the Daughters of Jerusalem center, where he had been accompanied by non-Hasidic religious leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv. Lupolianski was forced to reenter the auditorium, and wait and hour before police arrived to disperse the protests.

Lupolianski said after the incident that while he was opposed to holding a gay pride parade in Jerusalem, he would continue to fight the physical violence accompanying the religious demonstrations against the parade.
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Police approved holding the Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem this week after agreeing with event organizers on an alternate route that would bypass the city's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, the State Prosecution told the High Court of Justice on Tuesday.

The parade is scheduled to begin at 11 A.M. on Friday morning. The High Court, nevertheless, has still to rule Wednesday on a petition calling for the parade's cancellation.

Police officials made their final decision on the parade Monday in talks with representatives of the Jerusalem Open House, the gay support center organizing the parade. The two bodies discussed the scope of the parade, its route, and the possibility of postponing it until next Friday. In the end, the police agreed to it being held on an alternate route than initially planned.

In a compromise proposal, police recommended that the route of the parade be confined to an area far from ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.

The alternate route runs from the government ministries complex near the western entrance of the city to the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University. The initial route, which was to run from Independence Park to Bell Park, also bypassed ultra-Orthodox areas. Police nevertheless had said they would not be able to provide adequate security along the original route.

Police have cited intelligence reports showing intensive planning among ultra-Orthodox activists to disrupt the parade, in part violently.

Protests against the upcoming parade continued into a second week on Tuesday in Jerusalem's religious neighborhoods, hours after the ultra-Orthodox supreme rabbinical court said it was considering placing a halakhic curse on the organizers of the event.

Police reiterated Tuesday plans to deploy thousands of Border Police troops across the country to ensure adequate security on the day of the parade.

"There will be 12,000 police deployed in Jerusalem on Friday," Israel Police Operations Division commander Berti Ohayon said. "In addition, there will be thousands of police deployed across the country."

Ultra-Orthodox court mulls pulsa denura on gay marchers
Ultra-Orthodox protesters on Tuesday rolled burning trash receptacles into the streets of Mea She'arim, disrupting traffic. Police forces deployed in the neighborhood to restore order to the area.

Earlier Tuesday, the supreme court of the ultra-Orthodox Eida Haredit mulled the possibility of issuing a pulsa danura - a halakhic measure widely viewed as a death curse - on the organizers of the planned Gay Pride Parade and against "police who beat ultra-Orthodox Jews" protesting against the parade.

"The Rabbical Court has held a special session and discussed placing a pulsa danura on those who have a hand in organizing the march," Rabbi Shmuel Papenheim, editor of the Eida Haredit's weekly magazine "Ha'eidah" told Army Radio on Tuesday.

The curse could also be cast "against the policemen who beat ultra-Orthodox Jews," Papenheim added.

Pulsa denura - or "whip of fire" in Aramaic - is a curse with origins in Kabbalistic mysticism. It first came to light in Israel when far-right rabbis pronounced the curse on then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin during the turbulent period that preceded his 1995 assassination.

The ceremony, which is supposed to cause the death of the subject within a year, calls upon the angels of destruction to refrain from forgiving the subject his sins, to kill him and to call down all the curses named in the Bible.

Religious far-rightists also pronounced the curse against Ariel Sharon in the run-up to the summer, 2005, disengagement from Gaza.

Leftist Meretz party Knesset faction chair Zehava Gal-On said that Papenheim's remarks constituted "incitement to murder."

Gal-On called on the police and the attorney-general to investigate those responsible for the pulsa danura discussion for possible criminal prosecution. "I recommend taking this with utmost seriousness, and to relate to this on the level of criminal offenses, not as just free speech."

"Brakes must be placed on free speech, when it is liable to turn dangerous, and we have seen that this is possible."

High Court to rule on petition to cancel parade
Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch and justices Eliezer Rivlin and Ayala Procaccia will meet Wednesday to decide whether to grant permission for the parade to take place, the three justices decided on Monday.

Beinisch has summoned Jerusalem Police Commander Ilan Franco to the hearing so the court can hear directly from the police, which oppose the march, and not just from the attorney general's representative, who supports it.

The attorney representing the prosecution, Eran Ettinger, told the court Monday that there was no reason to discuss the petition until a final decision had been reached on the parade route, which Beinisch said would play an integral role in the court's ruling.

"The balance between the right to demonstrate and march and the concern for the marchers' safety will be determined based on the concrete circumstances and details of the route that will be determined," she said.

The petitioners are Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, a leader in the ultra-Orthodox community, and pro-Kahane figures Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel.

Responding to the contention that last year's stabbing of three marchers shows that violence is a concern, Beinisch said: "We all live in this city and want matters to take place without the worry of bloodshed. But one can't threaten bloodshed on the part of the one who shed blood."

It came to light Monday that prosecution officials had informally suggested that the Open House submit its own High Court petition prior to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz's decision on Sunday to allow the march.

This would have shifted the burden of decision from Mazuz to the High Court, in which case the prosecution would be representing the police's position against the parade rather than Mazuz's decision in favor of it.
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  1.   let the march begin 07:53  |  oscar 07/11/06
  2.   If Gays want to take the risk and march let them. 08:25  |  Timothy 07/11/06
  3.   Please behave... 09:19  |  Paul Henzen 07/11/06
  4.   how the hands that hold the thora can put fire in the street 09:28  |  Charles 07/11/06
  5.   israel is awesome 10:33  |  george 07/11/06
  6.   Pulsa denura ? 11:04  |  Maurice 07/11/06
  7.   jewish murderers 11:14  |  Pink Boy 07/11/06
  8.   Poor Ms Bar On 11:16  |  dihirod 07/11/06
  9.   Pulsa Denura 11:39  |  Aussie 07/11/06
  10.   Why all this fuss? 12:06  |  Shalom Kolodny 07/11/06
  11.   IMMEDIATE PREVENTIVE INTERNAL SECURITY ACTION NEEDED. 1. 12:10  |  H.H.M 07/11/06
  12.   IMMEDIATE PREVENTIVE INTERNAL SECURITY ACTION NEEDED. 2 12:11  |  H.H.M 07/11/06
  13.   Let them pray. Let`s see who wins. 12:12  |  Moshe 07/11/06
  14.   Pulsa denura 12:17  |  Joost 07/11/06
  15.   Pulsa denura is voodoo 12:29  |  sh 07/11/06
  16.   pulsa denura - the new harry potter curse 12:40  |  Charles 07/11/06
  17.   two way street 12:52  |  Yosef 07/11/06
  18.   #6,8 12:54  |  Peter Dale 07/11/06
  19.   charedi madness 12:55  |  miriam 07/11/06
  20.   Pulsa DeNura 12:57  |  Gerald Zang 07/11/06
  21.   #11 13:01  |  anj 07/11/06
  22.   Bar On? 13:02  |  A.M. 07/11/06
  23.   #7 Pink Boy 13:09  |  Gerald Zang 07/11/06
  24.   Whats wrong with that??? 13:17  |  Jeffrey 07/11/06
  25.   avraham, shame on you 13:22  |  miriam sarah 07/11/06
  26.   Queers in Jerusalem. 13:23  |  Billy 07/11/06
  27.   # 11 Avraham incintment to murder 13:30  |  SJ 07/11/06
  28.   Ultra-Othodoxes behind the Green Line! 13:37  |  f.k. 07/11/06
  29.   Reply to No. 10: Sh 13:39  |  Harold 07/11/06
  30.   Middle of the Road. 13:46  |  Shlomo 07/11/06
  31.   Pulsa denura 14:00  |  Charles 07/11/06
  32.   Is this the 21st century? 14:03  |  Jonathan 07/11/06
  33.   Illegal Black Arts Curse 14:04  |  Itai 07/11/06
  34.   Extremists all around 14:25  |  George 07/11/06
  35.   A Curse For The Haredim 14:30  |  Ben Dover 07/11/06
  36.   What a bunch of.. 14:36  |  British academic 07/11/06
  37.   Bravo Israel. Let the gays march... 14:39  |  Tarek 07/11/06
  38.   IMMEDIATE PREVENTIVE INTERNAL SECURITY ACTION NEEDED. Part 2 14:41  |  H.H.M 07/11/06
  39.   IMMEDIATE PREVENTIVE INTERNAL SECURITY ACTION NEEDED. part 3. 14:42  |  H.H.M 07/11/06
  40.   IThis curse seems to work according to its results 14:47  |  Dr brecknand 07/11/06
  41.   PULSA DENURA 14:54  |  BUNGBE 07/11/06
  42.   Haaretz censors depriving right of free speech 14:58  |  Bennie 07/11/06
  43.   #7 Pink Boy: Any how many have gays killed with AIDS? 15:00  |  Moshe 07/11/06
  44.   Voodoo Schmoodoo 15:13  |  B`Galil 07/11/06
  45.   Praise to freedom of expression in Israel 15:35  |  Asghar 07/11/06
  46.   To "28# British Academic 15:46  |  Hardi J. Niclasen 07/11/06
  47.   #38: Moshe : A reply 15:51  |  Stephen Murray 07/11/06
  48.   What a year for the Chassids 15:53  |  Jacob Blues 07/11/06
  49.   Include 15:59  |  Choni 07/11/06
  50.   Moshe #38 16:03  |  Choni 07/11/06
  51.   which is worse 16:04  |  Shiloh 07/11/06
  52.   WELL SAID GEORGE No 29 16:05  |  NEUTERED OBSERVER 07/11/06
  53.   Harold, ah that old black magic! 16:11  |  sh 07/11/06
  54.   Zealots were responsible for destruction of 2nd Temple 16:12  |  Jake 07/11/06
  55.   "Brakes must be placed on free speech, when it is liable to turn 16:13  |  Besalel 07/11/06
  56.   Why the Gay parade is inappropriate 16:15  |  Elliot 07/11/06
  57.   But Sharon is still alive after one year 16:17  |  Jake 07/11/06
  58.   hypocrasy 101 16:20  |  tziporah heller 07/11/06
  59.   Better Targets 16:24  |  Harry D 07/11/06
  60.   Dr. brecknand`s diagnosis 16:25  |  sh 07/11/06
  61.   stupid parade 16:29  |  michael 07/11/06
  62.   #42 Moshe 16:50  |  Gerald Zang 07/11/06
  63.   News Flash all you homophobes 16:57  |  Pink Boy 07/11/06
  64.   Don`t let the religious blood suckers fool you 17:12  |  Danny 07/11/06
  65.   both sides 17:23  |  Alex 07/11/06
  66.   #56: Elliot: Why the parade is inappropriate? 17:40  |  Stephen Murray 07/11/06
  67.   #61: Michael: Stupid parade? Stupid Michael more like 17:43  |  Stephen Murray 07/11/06
  68.   Riot or Demonstration watch your incitement Haaretz 17:54  |  Lemmings Hotline 07/11/06
  69.   pink boy 63 17:56  |  justin-the gay jew 07/11/06
  70.