Haifa’s municipality is organizing a Pride rally in Gan HaEm on Wednesday, but many in the city’s LGBTQ community say that a closed-site event cannot replace a parade through the streets. In response, activists plan an “alternative Pride parade” that will begin near Rotary Square on Hanassi Boulevard, proceed along the city’s main route, and end by joining the rally in the park.
The separate march was organized by activists from HaKeshet HaChifait, a local LGBTQ group, after the city decided not to hold the traditional parade this year. The decision came, they say, against the backdrop of a documented rise in violence and anti-LGBTQ hostility. The municipality said it cancelled the parade because police security costs were too high, about NIS 500,000, but organizers rejected that explanation and called it a surrender that leaves the community exposed in Israel’s third-largest city.
“‘The parade will march, that is not a question,’” said Lilith Bartana, an activist with HaKeshet HaChifait and a member of the leadership of the Rok Ha’Ir movement. “If there is no parade in Haifa, it will be a dangerous precedent and a gift to homophobes who want to push us back into the closet. Violence reached new heights this year, the government is cutting budgets, and just last week the pride flag that was hung above city hall was vandalized. We will not back down.”
Following the municipality’s decision, dozens of activists organized and won backing from national LGBTQ organizations to stage the event themselves. They are demanding that the city take full responsibility for future parades instead of leaving the job to volunteers, which they say amounts to abandoning the community to street violence. Meanwhile, the city says it held several public meetings with LGBTQ representatives over recent months and that the chosen format was agreed on by the community itself. Haifa says this year’s Pride budget is the highest ever allocated in the city, and that the month will include a broad slate of cultural, community, sports, outreach and leisure events led in part by community members.
