Last week, Pride was marred by the removal of a banner from a US Embassy building, on order of Deputy Mayor Arieh King, and the closing of a pedestrian mall where a Pride event was planned on Friday – despite other pedestrian malls remaining open on the same day. On Thursday, the far-right Lehava organization released directives to its members informing them how to infiltrate into the Pride rally on Sunday, raising concerns of violence and unrest.
All of these incidents made the title of the rally on Sunday – which joined three parallel rallies in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Beersheba – more prevalent: The Struggle Continues. The rally aimed to show that the LGBTQ+ community still has a way to go before LGBTQ+ people can live freely and securely.
Security was extremely tight on Sunday. Participants could only enter through a couple of main entrances and had to be checked and show their IDs multiple times while walking through a maze of security fences. Police were spread out throughout the entire area. By the beginning of the event, 27 people had been arrested and a number of Lehava activists had been detained and released.
Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan Nahum, who was present at the rally with Laura Wharton, the leader of the Meretz faction in city hall, explained to The Jerusalem Post that despite the incidents of the past week, “the municipality and the mayor in general respect the LGBT community of Jerusalem.”
“We are making sure that the Open House is well represented and gets what it deserves in terms of resources,” added Nahum. “What happened last week is extremists and homophobes like Arieh King using and abusing the power that they have in order to harm anybody who's different from them. What we're here to say today is that Jerusalem belongs to all its residents, whoever they are, and we will beat those dark forces of extremism.”
While the Pride events were taking place across Israel, Yesh Atid MK Idan Roll presented a proposal for a law to allow surrogacy for gay couples in Israel, but the proposal was rejected by a Knesset committee.
WHILE THE night was largely festive, the rally did take moments to remember darker times. Co-chairwoman of the Open House Noam Yavin mentioned a number of people that the Israeli LGBTQ+ community has lost in recent months, including David Ehrlich, one of the owners of the Tmol Shilshom café, and Hen Langer, who was injured in the Bar Noar massacre.The crowd stood for a moment of silence in memory of Shira Banki and those who were killed or took their own lives due to LGBTQ+phobia.
"From here, I see how far the path still is; I see how much work we all still have to do. The time has come to stop being silent and to wake up Jerusalem and Israeli society," said Yavin. "It is on all of us to ensure the security of the LGBTQ+ community."
Despite the difficulties of the past week and the losses from past years, the event focused largely on strength and hope.
"This evening deals with hope. Our fight always has carried and always will carry a message of hope, even in the darkest times," said host Amit Rahav.
While the various speakers stressed that much has been achieved and that this is a great time for the LGBTQ+ community, they also emphasized that there's still a lot of work to do, as a number of issues with equality, acceptance and freedom remain.
"To each tearing down of a flag, we will respond with light, tolerance and dozens of new flags. To all threats, explicit or hidden, we will respond by strengthening the community. To every discrimination, we will respond by fixing it."
Yavin called on the prime minister and the municipality, saying that "we will not rest or be silent until the right to live securely, the right to be mothers and fathers, the right to marry in the State of Israel, the right to be seen – will be second nature."
This is the first time that four cities with large Pride events have done simultaneous events. The event was livestreamed on the Open House's Facebook page.
Yavin ended her remarks looking forward, stating that she would see everyone at the Pride march on June 3, 2021. The rally continued late into the night with messages of strength, hope, calls to action and festivities.