A record 30,000 demonstrators turned out for Jerusalem’s Pride March on Thursday, reports Jewish News.
This is one week after Israel’s legislature and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu passed a controversial surrogacy law excluding
Over 2,500 police officers, some uniformed and some in plainclothes, monitored security at the event. All participants were questioned and searched before they were given a bracelet and permitted to march.
The march through Israel’s capital took a 1.25 mile route from Liberty Bell to Independence Park.
Several ultra-Orthodox Jews protested the march. They were sprayed with water cannons by Israeli police. At least four protestors, members of extremist far-right Lehava organization, were arrested.
In 2015, an Israeli man named Yishai Schlissel murdered 16-year-old marcher Shira Banki, who was attending the march to support her LGBTQ+ friends.
At this year’s march, a flower-draped memorial was set up in the corner where Banki was murdered.
This year’s march was organized by the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance. This year’s banner was “Community Heritage: Honouring the Seniors of the Community…[to] celebrate the senior individuals and pioneers who have persistently fought for equality, freedom, and human rights of the LGBTQ people in Jerusalem and throughout the country.”
h/t: Jewish News