Secular vs. Haredi tensions in J'lem parked at Barkat's door

Secular activists in Jerusalem are planning a rally next weekend to support the Saturday opening of a parking garage, which the ultra-Orthodox call a violation of the Sabbath, and midweek could see tensions between the two groups, exacerbated in recent weeks, grow worse with the annual Gay Pride parade on Thursday.

Yesterday, as on the previous Saturday, the Safra Square city hall parking garage, which provides parking for visitors to the Old City, was closed although the municipality said earlier the garage would be opened on Saturdays at no charge and would be staffed by non-Jews. The plan aroused the ire of the ultra-Orthodox in the city, as a purported violation of the Sabbath, prompting Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to keep the garage closed for two weeks during which an effort would be made to find an alternative.

The city is looking at the possible opening of other privately-owned parking garages.

City officials are exploring the possibility of opening the Mamilla garage owned by Alfred Akirov near Jaffa Gate or the nearby garage owned by the Carta municipal corporation. Carta is currently in receivership.

Jerusalem municipal officials are also attempting to resolve the dispute through contacts with the ultra-Orthodox community. Although the community apparently remains opposed to the opening of the city hall garage at Safra Square, which is near an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, Jerusalem officials hope the community would not object to the opening of a private garage at a greater distance from the neighborhood.

If the parking dispute didn't leave the city with a full plate, on Thursday, the annual Gay Pride parade will be held in the capital. In previous years, the parade was met with angry protest and violence on the part of the ultra-Orthodox community. Last year, however, the ultra-Orthodox leadership decided to drop the protests following bitter internal criticism in the community that the protests had resulted in ultra-Orthodox residents being exposed to problematic, sexually-related content. So last year's pride parade, which was relatively modest, came off quietly.

This year, the gay and lesbian community intends to expand the scope of the event. "We were a little concerned," said Yonatan Gher, director of the non-profit Open House, which supports the capital's gay, lesbian and transgender community, "because of the issue of the garage, but all indications point to the fact that this year will be peaceful, too."

Organizers expect about 5,000 marchers for this year's rally. Although no formal protests are planned in opposition to the march, some extreme right-wing activists said they would attempt to disrupt the event.

In another source of potential religious-secular tension, residents of the largely secular Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood, who foresee a growing ultra-Orthodox presence in the neighborhood, demonstrated last Friday against the putting up of an eruv, a line of wire whose delineation, according to Jewish religious law, enables observant Jews to perform certain tasks on the Sabbath such as carrying objects beyond the confines of their homes.