Jerusalem’s Zion Square to be Renamed for Teen Fatally Stabbed at Gay Pride Parade
Zion Square in downtown Jerusalem will be renamed for the teenage girl who was stabbed to death last summer at the city’s gay pride parade.
The area will be called Tolerance Square in memory of Shira Banki, 16, who was killed in July by a haredi Orthodox assailant who had just been released from prison for committing a similar attack at the 2005 gay pride march. Five others were injured in the 2015 attack.
Banki, a high school student from Jerusalem, was marching to support her gay friends. Her parents donated her organs.
The Jerusalem municipality earlier this week announced a competition to redesign the site, which is being renovated.
“Zion Square, in the historic heart of downtown Jerusalem – which for many years attracted protests, demonstrations and clashes – will soon become a square to represent tolerance and mutual respect in the spirit of the late Shira Banki, murdered during the Gay Pride Parade,” the municipality said in a statement.
The square is located on Jaffa Road adjacent to the popular Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!