Leaders of Jerusalem’s LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender)
community have postponed this year’s annual Gay Pride Parade to late
July, to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the shooting attack in
a Tel Aviv gay and lesbian youth center that left two dead and 15
wounded.
Police still have no leads in the shooting spree, which
claimed the lives of Nir Katz, 24, and Liz Trobashi, 27. A masked
gunman stormed into the Bar-Noar youth center on Nahmani Street last
August 1 and opened fire with what is presumed to have been an assault
rifle.
Fifteen others, most of them minors, were wounded by gunfire before the attacker fled.
The
Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance – which together with a
number of other LGBT groups organizes the annual parade – announced on
Monday that it had decided to hold this year’s march in a “unique way,
dedicating the coming year to the promotion of the LGBT community’s
rights, especially in light of political declarations made at last
year’s remembrance rally [after the attack].”
The parade is
usually held in June, but this year it will take place on July 29,
pending police approval. The march will also feature a new route that
leads to the Knesset, where participants will issue a formal request
that the murder case be taken up by the government in an effort to
finally catch the killer.
The march will also mark the launch of
“LGBT Community Rights Year,” in which community members will demand
that the Knesset, government ministries and Israeli society
significantly progress in promoting equal rights for the LGBT community
as well as eradicate incitement and violent discourse against them,
the Jerusalem Open House said in a statement.
Politicians who
spoke at the solidarity rally in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square a week after
the Bar-Noar attack will be invited to speak at a rally in
the Wohl Rose Garden, near the Knesset, at the conclusion of this
year’s parade under the banner “What has changed?”
“The LGBT
community is discriminated against in countless laws and suffers from
discrimination at the hands of government ministries,” Yonatan Gher,
the executive director of the Jerusalem Open House, said in a statement.
“The Jerusalem Pride March, commemorating the anniversary of the
[Bar-Noar attack], will focus on the community’s place in Israeli
society and will delineate a work plan for the coming year, to which we
hope public figures, leaders and opinion-makers will enlist. Only a
significant change – starting with legislation and reaching into public
discourse – will constitute a fitting legacy for those who have been
murdered because of their sexual identity.”
Nir Katz’s mother, Ayala Katz, who heads Tehila, a support organization
for parents of LGBT community members, was quoted in the press release
regarding her hopes for the march and the initiatives that will follow
it.
“Almost one year after the murder in Tel Aviv, in which my son Nir and
Liz Trobashi were murdered and many others were physically and mentally
injured, the homophobia in Israeli society that led to this atrocious
act still exists,” she said.
“I hope that the march on the Knesset will signal the launch of
promoting open dialogue, a year of promoting tolerance and openness in
the multi-faceted Israeli society, a year of promoting the love of our
fellow man or woman, whoever they may be. Such a reality will
constitute the most appropriate tribute to which I could hope for.”