52 People Detained For Attempting To Disrupt Jerusalem Pride Parade

Gay Oasis: Israelis carry flags during last year?s gay pride parade in Tel Aviv. Image by Getty Images

By Josefin Dolsten June 6, 2019

(JTA) — More than 10,000 people marched in Jerusalem’s Pride parade, but 52 were detained or arrested on suspicion of trying to disrupt the event, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told the Jerusalem Post.

The number of attendees was significantly smaller than last year, when a record 30,000 people participated in the march in support of the LGBTQ community in the city.

Among the attendees were Justice Minister Amir Ohana, who became the country’s first openly gay government minister when he was appointed to the position on Wednesday. Some participants booed Ohana, who is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party.

Some 2,500 uniformed and plainclothes police officers were deployed to protect attendees. In 2015, a haredi Orthodox man stabbed to death a marcher, Shira Banki, 16, who was attending the parade in support of her LGBTQ friends.

Josefin Dolsten is a New York-based writer who has reported for the Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel and other Jewish publications. She currently works as an account director at Fenton Communications, supporting organizations that work to advance racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Dolsten earned her B.A. in government from Cornell University and her M.A. in comparative religion and Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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