Nechama Rivlin and Mika Banki
President calls for end to incitement against LGBT community
Reuven and Nechama Rivlin met with the parents of slain 16-year-old Shira Banki one year after her murder in the Jerusalem Pride parade; president condemned homophobic incitement by rabbis and other leaders; Bankis thanked Rivlin for his words, and he replied: 'Nechama and I are just representing Shira.'
President Reuven Rivlin and his wife Nechama met on Sunday with Uri and Mika Banki, whose 16-year-old daughter Shira was stabbed to death at last year's Jerusalem Pride parade. The president called for tolerance, particularly in light of the recent slew of homophobic pronouncements from prominent rabbis.
The president said, "The statements heard from the mouths of rabbis, leaders, and spiritual leaders have hurt me deeply. I would ask to repeat and remind everyone, 'Beloved is man, for he was created in (God's) image'; any man, regardless of religion, race, and sex. I am certain that the rabbis that so many pupils look up to, some of them members of the LGBT community themselves, will also find a way to clarify that they don't think differently."
Also present at the meeting were representative of the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance (JOH), which was organized to mark the first anniversary of Shira's murder and before the Jerusalem Pride parade that is to take place on Thursday.
The first lady hugging Mika Banki (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
The president added, "Differences based on politics, religion, or sexual orientation do not justify violence and incitement. This is not the way of Israeli society."
Shira Banki
He continued, "Shira was murdered for the right of expression of every woman and man, to express themselves and their sexuality freely. The right of every man and woman to be who they are, to experience the greatest joys in love, to love whom the heart wants, love without borders, love that it is permitted and possible to openly express. We must promote a safe public space in which, even if there's disagreement, it's required to respect every person. We must differentiate between disagreement and violence, hatred, violent, hurtful, and destructive dialogue that at times also incites."
The Rivlins with the JOH representatives and the Bankis (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
Using the Hebrew word for "proud" as a stand-in for LGBT, which is common in Israeli parlance, he asked, "to stop the incitement against the proud community and all support that this incitement receives."
The president added that, since Shira's murder, introductory meetings have taken place between secular and ultra-Orthodox, rightists and leftists, men and women, "who united to learn, pray and act together in Shira's memory." He warned, "We have a lot of work to do. Shira's murder and the terrible terror attack in Orlando indicate that a real effort to educate on tolerance is needed and that great struggles are still before us. I congratulate the representatives of the Open House for their work on behalf of the proud community and for egalitarian, inclusive and tolerant discourse in Israel."
The president greeting Mika Banki (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
Uri, Shira's father, thanked the president for the meeting: "Such a clear, strong, firm, and public official statement for moderation, tolerance, acceptance of others, is something that the State of Israel needs today, maybe more than anything else. It's a statement that is really lacking in lots of places, and the statement that goes out from this house is clear and continuous. This is a statement that is not simple, and it has a price, and we say them from time to time, and for that we thanked the President and this house that maintains the state, and for everything that I as a citizen of the State of Israel expect from him."
The president replied, "Nechama and I are just representing Shira."
L-R: Sara Kala-Meir, Nechama Rivlin, Mika Banki, Reuven Rivlin, Uri Banki (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
The JOH's executive director, Sarah Kala-Meir, said "The parade last year evoked hard feelings; it was a year of mourning, but a year full of the desire to continue and to act. The parade doesn't come to protests and to fight bureaucracy, but rather to fight for people's lives. Because if there weren't a parade, people would not talk and wouldn't know that there's someone to turn to. The parade will take place on Thursday, and we'll all be there."
Responding to Kala-Meir, the president said, "It's important that there be a parade for whoever wants it, without there being someone who could stop it. Everyone who wants will be where they want in the State of Israel."
