Deploying thousands of heavily armed police officers to ensure the security of a peaceful LGBTIQ march would seem unnecessary. But that’s how excessive and surreal things are in Jerusalem, where a few days ago it was celebrated, under heavy security the “March of Pride and Tolerance”, in which more than 5,000 people participated, guarded by some 2,400 uniformed and civilian agents, many of them with long weapons.
I was there, I did almost the entire route until the heat overcame me, almost at the end of the march, very close to home. It was, from the security cordon inwards, a normal march, like that of any other country, like our “congas against homophobia” (without Mariela, of course, and without the flavor of our Caribbean). Many rainbow flags, some with the star of David, which identifies the Jewish people, banners and protest slogans, songs, wigs, drag queens and much, much color and joy. A lot of young people and a lot of press.
But from the fences out the police looked tense. Jerusalem is a city marked for centuries by religiosity and intolerance. And now also by extreme right-wing groups that, in recent weeks, have hardened their stance against the LGTBIQ community and that, chanting slogans such as “Jerusalem is not Sodom” and “enough of LGTBIQ terror”, even threatened the organizers with death. of this rainbow march.
So there were plenty of reasons for the authorities to be very attentive.
From early on, the police closed the streets to vehicles and pedestrians, detained several suspects and only allowed access to the meeting point through “check points”, in which both protesters and journalists were identified with blue or lilac bracelets that we had to take off and deliver to some “cop” when leaving the perimeter that the parade would run through the most central area of the city.
A lot of security and control for my taste, it is seen that I have become unaccustomed to certain things.
But people went about their business, to feel free in a city where many are covered as in the Middle Ages and it is almost inconceivable to see a man without a shirt or a woman in a miniskirt; where boys dress as men and girls as ladies of the nineteenth century.
In this 20th edition of the “Jerusalem Pride and Tolerance March” there were laughs, kisses and hugs everywhere. reunions and selfie in a colorful pride parade marked by the shadow of an ultra-Orthodox Jew who, in the 2015 demonstration, assaulted several people and stabbed a 16-year-old girl to death, repeating a bloody scene that had already starred in the 2005 parade .
Luckily this year nothing happened. Whether due to the good actions of the authorities, or due to divine protection, in this city everything is possible.
Next Friday the pride parade is held in Tel-Aviv, I hope to be there, but it will be something else. Tel-Aviv is a free city, without prejudice, free from the heavy yoke of religion, it is paradise for some gay of the Middle East, nothing to do with retrograde Jerusalem.
