Pride parade to reach Knesset on year to hate crime

Jerusalem's gay pride parade is being delayed this year by one month so that it can be held as memorial marking year anniversary of shooting at Tel Aviv gay youth center, which remains shrouded in mystery

Ronen Medzini|Published: 05.03.10 , 23:03

In commemoration of the year anniversary of the shooting massacre at the Tel Aviv gay youth center, leaders of the gay community in Jerusalem announced Monday their decision to postpone the gay pride parade in the capital by a month instead of holding it, as it customarily is, in June.

Instead, the parade will be held on July 29, the year anniversary of the hate crime that took the lives of gay youth leader Nir Katz and teenager, Liz Trubeshi. The police still do not have a lead on the identity of the perpetrator.

Pending police authorization, the path of the parade will also be changed this year, and will lead to the Knesset where the participants will ask that the issue be placed on the agenda and that State authorities take action to get their hands on the murderer.

"At the end of one year since the murder, we want to see what became of all the promises that were made after the event," said to Ynet Yonatan Ger, CEO of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance and is responsible for the parade.

"There were a lot of nice speeches. Now, the time has come to hear from these same politicians what has been done in the past year. All the organizations in the gay community will march together on this day to the Knesset," Ger said.

After the parade, the participants will hold a rally in the nearby rose garden.

"It has been nearly a year since the murder in Tel Aviv in which the lives of my son and Liz Trubeshi were taken and many others were wounded physically and emotionally. The same homophobia still exists in Israeli society that led to this criminal act," said Ayala Katz, Nir Katz's mother who today serves as the head of Tehila, an organization that provides support for parents of gay, lesbian, and transgender children.

Katz expressed hope that this year's parade will be the start of a new path for the gay community in Israel. "I hope that this same event will beget for us this year open dialogue, tolerance, and openness in our society for all its shades and components, and love between people for who they are. This would be the best way to commemorate Nir," she said.