Lapid tells Jerusalem Pride marchers: Far right can’t tell us who to love

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid arrives at the Jerusalem Pride Parade before it kicks off in the city’s Liberty Bell Park.

“Avi Maoz can’t tell us who to love, [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich can’t tell us who to love, the Haredim and the crazy people protesting against us can’t tell us who to love,” he tells a burgeoning crowd, listing far-right politicians who have expressed homophobic views.

Across the street, a group of demonstrators with the far-right Lehava organization protest the event, deriding it as an “abomination parade.”

Lapid tells the crowd that despite persisting antipathy toward the LGBTQ+ community, Israel has moved toward acceptance over the past decade.

He insists that many self-described right-wingers in Israel — giving the example of the average “Likudnik family from Ashdod” — have become increasingly tolerant of same-sex couples.

He adds, however, that the “struggle will not end” so long as Avi Maoz, an outspokenly homophobic lawmaker, continues to “introduce homophobic material to educational institutions.”

Organizers are marking a decade since the 2015 murder of Shira Banki, a 16-year-old girl who was stabbed by an ultra-Orthodox man during the course of the parade.

Banki’s father, Ori Banki, is expected to speak to the crowd at the march’s conclusion in Independence Park.