LGBTQ community in Jerusalem marches on, despite controversy

After being rescheduled twice because of this summer’s conflict, the Jerusalem Gay Pride parade occurred last Thursday evening. Unlike Tel Aviv’s Pride parade, the “holy city” of Jerusalem’s parade resembles “more of a serious political march than a festival-like celebration.” 

Also different from Tel Aviv, the number of participants in the Jerusalem parade was under 1,000, compared to over 100,000 people for Tel Aviv’s parade. But the Times of Israel reports that the lower number is not merely because of Jerusalem’s more traditional leanings. Longtime LGBTQ activist Sarah Weil believes that “the overwhelming reason” for less turnout this year “is because of the fact that there was a major controversy.”

This summer, Elinor Sidi, the executive director of the most prominent LGBTQ activist organization in Jerusalem, Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance (JOH), posted on her Facebook page against the war and the state of Israel. Her language included a call to “burn down the Knesset and Israel’s military headquarters, as well as for soldiers to disobey orders.”  Many within the community urged her to resign, those outside the community complained of the incitement of violence, and Sidi quickly apologized. Then, the JOH board members released a statement supporting their director. Thus began a social media war within and without the community, causing a political schism in the LGBTQ movement in Jerusalem and alienating JOH from those in the community without a similar far-left agenda. 

This incident represents a broader issue of the paradoxical relationship between the LGBTQ minority and the Israeli state.

On one hand, Israel is extremely progressive in its gay rights. In Israel, it is illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation in employment, adoptions, partner benefits, and the military. While America hid gay military personnel with its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Israel’s defense forces began protecting by law “out” men and women in 1993. Although these most basic rights seem like they should be a given, they are certainly not a given throughout the Middle East, making Israel the outlier. 

On the other hand, there are people like Sidi within the LGBTQ movement who are vehemently against the Israeli state despite the protection it offers LGBTQ citizens. So why would such people bite the hand that feeds them? 

Many accuse Israel of “pink-washing,” the word people use for Israel’s LGBTQ support in the context of Israel’s security agenda. But the accusation of pink washing is detrimental to the success of the LGBTQ movement in Israel and as a whole. Accusing Israel of pink-washing and threatening Israel as Sidi did undermines any collaboration between the Israeli government and the LGBTQ in the future.

Even so, at the Pride Parade in Jerusalem, the police devoted themselves to protecting JOH from anti-gay demonstrators. There are very few places other than Israel where a group’s director can verbally attack the government and soldiers, and then less than two months later, those who were verbally attacked will physically defend the group that supported the attack.

In countless countries without freedom of speech, any criticism of the government may be punished, let alone criticism from an individual who may already be oppressed (or even executed) by homophobic laws. But alas, this is Israel, a country where criticism is a protected right, and even after threats against the state, the state will go above and beyond to protect the gay community, no matter where their directors stand on the political spectrum. 

Eliana Rudee is a contributor to the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity. She is a graduate of Scripps College, where she studied International Relations and Jewish Studies. Follow her @ellierudee.