Tens of thousands gather for the 25th annual Tel Aviv Pride Parade
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Tens of thousands gather for the 25th annual Tel Aviv Pride Parade

Shortly before the parade, the slogan "Kahane was right" was spray painted on an LGBTQ centre in Tel Aviv, a reference Meir Kahane, a Jewish extremist who was assassinated in 1990.

By Jotam Confino June 8, 2023, 11:47 pm Edit
Tel Aviv Pride. Courtesy: Twitter.
Tel Aviv Pride. Courtesy: Twitter.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv as the annual Pride Parade kicked off on Thursday afternoon. 

The parade, celebrated for the 25th time this year, was held amid high temperatures and heavy security, with hundreds of police officers deployed throughout the city.

As usual, people from all over the world came to Tel Aviv to attend the parade, which is among the most famous and popular in the world. Several streets were closed off to allow for the parade to take place throughout the city.

On Friday, Pride culminates with a party at noon in north Tel Aviv where a number of Israeli artists are scheduled to perform, including Netta Barzilai, the 2018 Eurovision winner.

Unlike previous years, lawmakers weren’t scheduled to speak at the event. Shortly before the parade was set to begin at 4:00 PM local time, a 33-year-old man was arrested by police, carrying an electroshock weapon, pepper spray, and brass knuckles. The man has previously threatened to harm members of the LGBTQ community. Police arrested him, suspecting he intended to attack pride attendants.

LGBTQ centre in Tel Aviv also reported that a far-right slogan had been spray painted on its wall right before the parade began.

“Kahane was right” the graffiti read, referring to the Meir Kahane, a racist American-Israeli extremist who was assassinated in New York in 1990. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is a follower Kahane, showing up every year at memorials in honour of him.

After the grafittig was discovered, Deputy Tel Aviv Mayor Meital Lehavi called on Ben-Gvir to “condemn the ugly graffiti on the building of the Tel Aviv Municipal LGBT Community Center on the morning of the Tel Aviv Pride Parade.”

Tel Aviv District Commander Amichai Eshed promised ahead of the parade that violence or incitement to violence won’t be tolerated and that the police will “act to take care of these phenomena.”

“Our goal needs to be clear to every police officer and commander — that every participant in the parade tomorrow returns home safely, and with a smile,” Eshel said.

The parade comes as homophobic slur by coalition lawmakers has caused great concern in the LGBTQ community.

One of the main fears is that the coalition will go ahead with a planned change to the Discrimination Law, which will allow for doctors and business owners to turn away patients and costumers if it “goes against they religious beliefs”, something that is tailored to allow for public discrimination against gays.

The change to the law is spearheaded by Religious Zionism party, whose leader, Betzalel Smotrich, is a self-declared homophobe.

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