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Last update - 00:00 14/06/2009
Five gay couples wed in ceremony on Tel Aviv beach
By Sara Miller, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel News, gay 

Five gay couples wed Friday in a ceremonial marriage on Tel Aviv beach, at the culmination of the city's 11th annual Gay Pride Parade, which saw more than 20,000 people take to the streets to promote gay rights.

The ceremony, held at sundown after a boisterous disco on the sand, began with a serenade by gay pop star Ivri Lider as the three female and two male same-sex couples walked up to the Chuppah, the Jewish wedding altar.


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The ceremony was performed according to Jewish marriage rites, with each couple exchanging rings and Hebrew vows before breaking the traditional glass as the crowd erupted in applause.


The couples married as the sun set on Tel Aviv beach. (Reuters)


Nitzan Horowitz of Meretz, the Knesset's first openly gay parliamentarian, attended the wedding, along with Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai.

"I hope that from this day weddings like this can happen in every place in Israel and not just in Tel Aviv," Horowitz told Haaretz. "Weddings for everyone - man and woman, man and man, and woman and woman, and this will be the end of the monopoly of the ultra-Orthodox over our lives in Israel."

Israeli director Eytan Fox, whose movies "Walk on Water" and "The Bubble" deal with gay issues in Israel, was also there to mark the occasion.

"It's a very important and historic day," he said. "It's very exciting and in the end the good guys won."

The parade was sponsored by Tel Aviv municipality as part of the city's cetennial celebrations. The floats with their dancers, scantily clad youths and blasting pop music started out from Meir Park before winding their way through the city's streets to the beachfront.


Gay Pride paraders in Tel Aviv. (AP)


A small group of right-wing and religious protesters demonstrated against the parade, holding up banners reading: "God hates debauchery."

Interior Minister Eli Yishai had called on Huldai and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel the parade. On June 25, Jerusalem will host its own pride parade, an event which has in previous years sparked fierce opposition from Jewish and Muslim clerics and politicians.

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  • High Court rejects petition asking to ban Jerusalem Gay Pride parade
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      1.   Huge progress noticeable on gay(dar) website 10:49  |  Tom Lobo Meyer 12/06/09
      2.   Gays are the difference between Israel and the Taleban. 11:40  |  Michael 12/06/09
      3.   #6 UK treats gays and minorities worse.. 12:56  |  Tom 12/06/09
      4.   Israel is more complicated reality than you guess, Michael 13:24  |  Israeli citizen 12/06/09
      5.   8 Israeli citizen. Try telling your interior minister that. 14:33  |  Michael 12/06/09
      6.   It is funded with taxpayer money??? 15:32  |  Binyamin Dissen 12/06/09
      7.   to Dave #5 15:56  |  Northern 12/06/09
      8.   Gays x Nazis 16:55  |  Pedro 12/06/09
      9.   Tel Aviv = Higher % of Jews than Jerusalem 16:56  |  JS 12/06/09
      10.   Shas Mizrahi Party intolerant bigots 17:49  |  Liliane 12/06/09
      11.   open your little mind.. 18:09  |  marc 12/06/09
      12.   Brod ----LOL! 19:31  |  joe pink 12/06/09
      13.   # 7 tom 19:33  |  Axel 12/06/09
      14.   My same sex partner doesnt want a Jewish wedding 19:35  |  Matt 12/06/09
      15.   congrats to the newly married couples, love/goodness beats bigots 20:31  |  anti-racist 12/06/09
      16.   #11 20:44  |  T A Sheppard 12/06/09
      17.   tel aviv..gay capitol of the world 21:43  |  :) 12/06/09
      18.   May God bless your marriage 22:33  |  michael 12/06/09
      19.   Interior Minister Eli Yishai and the Rabbinate 22:53  |  Yonatan 12/06/09
      20.   Its not the states place to decide 23:34  |  Eli 12/06/09
      21.   Five gay couples wed in ceremony on Tel Aviv beach 07:40  |  gail 13/06/09
      22.   Congrats, Israel! The 1st step is done... 08:26  |  Anna 13/06/09
      23.   civil marriage in democratic state 11:09  |  stef 13/06/09
      24.   Is this legal ? 12:25  |  David Plane 13/06/09
      25.   no to civil marriage & yes to gay marriage?!? 14:24  |  jorge 13/06/09
      26.   DELETED BY MODERATOR 16:29  |  Irooni 13/06/09
      27.   Mazal tov & may they have a lot of Nachas 10:44  |  L A 14/06/09
      28.   Love will conquer the hate 17:04  |  SJ 14/06/09
      29.   civil vs gay marriage 17:34  |  Daniel 14/06/09
      30.   gay marige 11:33  |  moez 15/06/09
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