Man arrested for threatening to attack gay pride parade

Bnei Brak resident suspected over Facebook post calling for a ‘terror attack’ at upcoming march in Tel Aviv

Police on Sunday arrested a resident of the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak on suspicion that he threatened the upcoming gay pride parade in Tel Aviv, police said.

According to police, the 20-year-old suspect called for a terror attack at the parade, which will take place this year on June 9.

The Facebook post read, in Hebrew, “Who’s coming with me to carry out a terror attack at the pride march?”

Although the Tel Aviv parade has not previously experienced violent attacks, the Jerusalem gay pride parade was the scene of a deadly stabbing spree in July 2015.

During the 2015 parade in Jerusalem, 16-year-old Shira Banki was murdered and several others injured by Yishai Schlissel, ultra-Orthodox extremist. The attack at the pride parade came just weeks after Schlissel was let out of prison, where he had served a 10-year sentence for a similar — albeit nonfatal — attack at the 2005 pride parade, in which he stabbed three people.