Heavy security amid fears of extremist attacks
Dana Raz and Tenshi Lerner are holding hands – Raz wears a gay pride flag tied around her waist, while Lerner wears hers around her shoulders and a cats ears headband. They kiss frequently and say they started dating about two weeks ago. Lerner says it’s her first gay pride parade and she’s excited.
Raz has been coming to the parade for years. One year ago, Raz was marching near Shira Banki, 16, when Yishai Schlissel fatally stabbed her, and wounded six others.
“All day I’ve been tense and nervous,” she told The Media Line, while waiting for a second police check to enter the gathering area for the parade. “But I had to come. Even if we have to wait two hours to get in, nobody is leaving here,” the 24-year-old biology student said as she leaned over to kiss her partner.
Schlissel is serving a life sentence for the murder, and he was questioned in prison this week and his brother detained on suspicion of planning another attack at the parade. Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said 30 people were detained before the parade began, several of them carrying knives.
“The police will continue to use a firm harm and show zero tolerance toward anyone who tries to disrupt the parade in any way,” she added.
More than 2000 police were tasked with protecting the marchers, and they carried out strict security checks, resulting in long lines. Police closed streets near the parade route, snarling traffic in downtown Jerusalem. The marchers said they wanted to show the world that gays have as much a right to live in Jerusalem as anywhere else. There were even families among the marchers, like Rinat and Yakov Herman who brought their two young daughters.
“We want to show the bad guys that we won and they lost,” Yakov Herman told The Media Line. “They declared war on us and this is our response.”
Some of the marchers were angry that Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat chose to skip the parade, apparently after pressure from ultra-Orthodox members of the city council. Barkat went earlier in the day and laid flowers on the site where Shira Banki was murdered last year.
“He should have been here so I brought this sign instead,” Yuval Regev told The Media Line, as he carried a cut out of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. “We have made a lot of progress in Tel Aviv but there is still a lot of work to be done in Jerusalem.”
Jerusalem has a large percentage of ultra-Orthodox Jews who believe the Biblical description of homosexuality as an “abomination.” Tel Aviv has been voted one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world. But there is no gay marriage in Israel, just as there is no secular marriage in the state. All marriages must be performed by a religious cleric.
Partly as a protest, two Jerusalemites, Yochai Werman and Yotam Hacohen, began the parade with a wedding ceremony that will not be recognized by the state. The crowd cheered as they exchanged rings.
The parents of Shira Banki, the young woman murdered at the parade last year, urged the public to come to the march, which is dedicated to her memory.
“Shira symbolizes something that is very powerful in Israeli society,” Tom Canning, Associate Director of The Open House, Jerusalem’s largest LBGTQ organization. “She was an idealistic girl like any other girl her age who was there to support her friend.”
Many of the young people marching said they have friends who are gay.
“I came to support my friends who are gay,” Yona Huppert, 16, told The Media Line. “Everybody should be able to make their own choices.”