Gay pride toned itself down in Jerusalem on Thursday, with a slightly subdued mood and an unofficial dress code for participants.

Gay pride in one of the world’s most holy cities has always been a touchy subject. The eighth pride parade to occur in Jerusalem, 2009 was less violent than previous years, but bare chests were frowned upon and anti-pride protesters, though relatively small in number, watched on.

Important to Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths, Jerusalem is a contentious site for pride celebrations, but this year’s participants saw it as a chance to express both their faith and their sexuality. Banners included, ‘Proud to be gay and religious’ held aloft by one participant, and the slogan ‘Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve’ by some protesters.

Nitzan Horowitz, one of three members of the liberal Meretz party in Israel’s parliament, called the pride march in Jerusalem, “a march for the character of the capital of Israel as a free pluralist city, not Tehran.”

While Israel’s Tel Aviv is famous for much more colourful and interesting costumes, and very loud expressions of sexuality, Jerusalem’s pride participants still enjoyed performances and bands at the march’s end point, Independence Park.

The city’s parade was most controversial in 2005 when then mayor, Uri Lupoliansky, attempted to ban celebrations. While the march went ahead, that same year a protester stabbed three participants and was subsequently sentenced to 12 years gaol. On Thursday, a small group of protesters threw eggs at participants and one man was detained by police for hitting a participant.

Numbers for the parade were estimated to be at around 2,000, with celebrations monitored by 1,600 police. According to Israel’s Hareetz.com, this level of police presence was much smaller than the 12,000 assigned to the event in 2006, and participation was much smaller than Tel Aviv’s 20,000 participants in a parade held early last month.