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The associated press
Isaac Scharf and Tia Goldenberg
Published on 01 June 2023 • read for 3 minutes
This is a location map of Israel and the Palestinian Territories. (AP photo) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of people will march on Thursday in Jerusalem’s Pride parade, an annual event taking place this year under Israel’s most right-wing government ever, piled with openly homophobic members.
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The march in the conservative city has always been tense and firmly secured by police and has been plagued by violence in the past. But this year, Israel has been deeply torn by a controversial government plan to overhaul the judiciary. The plan has torn long-standing social divisions between those who want to preserve Israel’s liberal values and those who want to shift it to more religious conservatism.
The march in Jerusalem tends to be more subdued than the one in gay-friendly Tel Aviv, where tens of thousands of revelers take to the streets for a grand, multicolored celebration. But Thursday’s parade in Jerusalem is expected to draw larger than usual crowds in a show of force against the government and its plan to reshape the justice system.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is made up of ultra-nationalist and ultra-religious parties that openly oppose homosexuality, even though the Israeli leader has pledged to protect LGBTQ+ rights and a member of his party who is gay is the Knesset speaker.
The country’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has stated in the past that he was a “proud homophobe”. Before entering politics, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who now oversees the police force, was a regular at Pride parades and joined a group of protesters opposed to the march. Avi Maoz, a deputy minister in charge of some educational content, has said he wants the legality of the Jerusalem Pride parade investigated.
Ben-Gvir said on Wednesday there would be a “huge” police presence guarding the demonstrators and that he supported the freedom of expression expressed by the parade. The Israeli police said more than 2,000 officers will line the parade route.
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“It is the job of the police to protect, monitor and ensure that even if the minister disagrees with the parade, the safety of the demonstrators is paramount,” Ben-Gvir said.
As in previous years, anti-LGBTQ+ protesters are expected at Thursday’s parade. During the 2015 parade, an ultra-Orthodox Israeli man stabbed 16-year-old Shira Banki to death and injured several others.
Israel is a rare bastion of tolerance for the LGBTQ+ community in the conservative Middle East, where homosexuality is widely considered taboo and banned in some places. Members of the LGBTQ+ community openly serve in the Israeli military and parliament, and many popular artists and entertainers are openly gay.
Still, activists say there is a long way to full equality. Jewish ultra-Orthodox parties, which exert significant influence over matters of religion and state, oppose homosexuality as a violation of religious law, as do other religious groups in Israel.
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The conservative composition of Netanyahu’s government sparked new fears in the LGBTQ+ community, which had made gains under the previous short-lived government led by Netanyahu’s rivals. Those fears were heightened when the government went ahead with its plan to overhaul the judiciary, a plan that was shelved in March after an eruption of spontaneous mass protests.
The plan would weaken the judiciary and limit judicial oversight of laws and government decisions, which critics say poses a direct threat to civil, minority and marginalized groups’ rights.
The protests have continued even as the government and opposition are in talks to find a compromise on the plan and protesters are expected to show up in Jerusalem to lend their support to the community.
The administration says the judicial plan is designed to curb what it says is an overly interventionist Supreme Court and restore power to elected lawmakers. Critics say it will give the government unlimited power and shake up the country’s system of checks and balances.
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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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