Three arrested for threatening Jerusalem Pride as thousands gather for annual celebration

Israeli police arrested three men on Thursday for making threats agains the annual Jerusalem Pride parade, where thousands of people came to show support for gay rights. 

Organisers of the parade reported numerous threats to the police in recent days. One Telegram group called “Jews don’t stay silent” contained inciting messages ahead of the parade, with one reading: “May all the marchers die from machine gun fire.”

The far-right extremist Lehava group organised a counter-protest in Jerusalem, holding signs saying: “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman. That is detestable.”

Jerusalem residents reported that they had received messages to their phones on Wednesday, saying: “Jerusalem is not Sodom. Religious, secular, ultra-Orthodox [people]– everyone is coming tomorrow to protest against the ‘abomination parade’ at 15:45 near the Begin Center.”

Several opposition leader joined the parade in support for the LGBTQ community, including Labour leader Merav Michaeli and National Unity party leader Benny Gantz.

Security around Jerusalem Pride has been tightened since 2015 when ultra-Orthodox extremist, Yishai Schlissel, killed a young girl, Shira Banki, in a stabbing attack at the parade.

Over 2,000 police officers were deployed throughout the city to ensure the parade could go on as planned, while roads were closed off to traffic along the route.

Before entering politics, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Betzalel Smotrich took part in hateful counter-protests during Jerusalem Pride, one of which was called the “beast parade”, which likened animals to homosexuality.

LGBTQ organisations in Israel have been outraged with Ben-Gvir being in charge of this year’s security around the parade, due to his homophobic past.

“The job of the police is first and foremost to protect the marchers. In addition, the police force has to do all it can to allow the counter-protesters to exercise their freedom of speech and protest,” Ben-Gvir said ahead of the parade.

“These are fundamental rights in a democracy and must be protected. People must not be turned away or detained solely because of their religious appearance or their intention to demonstrate against the parade,” he added.

This year’s parade comes after months of homophobic remarks spread by several ministers and lawmakers in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition.

The latest to draw harsh criticism for his anti-LGBTQ stance was Likud lawmaker, Nissim Vaturi, who was asked about his thoughts on the Jerusalem Pride in an interview with the Knesset Channel.

“There are parents who encourage LGBT (values), they give a boy a doll because it seems to them that he should now be gay, but that is not right. No one should influence people, neither Avi Maoz nor secularists. You don’t need to promote things, you don’t need to promote LGBT issues. Let the child choose what to be, whether he is religious, secular or LGBT. A person should choose his own path,” he said.