Jerusalem LGBTQ community gathers for Pride March to Knesset

Jerusalem’s annual Pride March is set to get underway, with thousands gathering at the city’s Sacher Park for a procession that will take them to the Knesset’s gates.

The route is different from that of past years, where participants would typically march from Liberty Bell Park to Independence Park, much further from government buildings.

Security for the event is tight, with a heavy police presence, as has been the norm for the last 10 years. In 2015, an ultra-Orthodox man carried out a stabbing attack during the march, killing one person and injuring several, days after being released from prison over an attack on the parade a decade earlier.

The march, organized each year by the Jerusalem Open House, is being held this year under the banner of “demanding change,” with elections on the horizon. The government, in power since late 2022, includes a number of lawmakers allied with homophobic figures.

Pride events in Jerusalem, as opposed to Tel Aviv, often take on a political tone due to the capital’s religious and conservative bent.

Among those scheduled to speak in Sacher Park ahead of the march are Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and The Democrats lawmaker Naama Lazimi.

Yossi Havilio and Adir Schwartz, both liberal-leaning deputy mayors of Jerusalem, will also address the crowd ahead of the march.

A counter-protest organized by the far-right Lehava group, denouncing the event as an “abomination march,” is set to be held outside a gas station near the entrance to Sacher Park.