Jerusalem Police Brace Themselves for Upcoming 'March of Tolerance'

Jerusalem, 19 July, 2016 (TPS) -- Jerusalem (TPS) – Following the harsh lessons of last year’s deadly hate crime and with anti-LGBT incitement in the background, the Jerusalem District Police announced the security arrangement on Tuesday for the upcoming Jerusalem March of Pride and Tolerance.

“We have full confidence that police will do its job, we held several meetings together in order to allow everyone who wishes to march the opportunity to do so safely,” Sarah Kala-Meir, director of Jerusalem’s Open House for Pride and Tolerance that organizes the annual parade, told Tazpit Press Service (TPS).

“The Israel Police today has completed all preparations for the pride parade on Thursday. Hundreds of policemen, border policemen, and supplementary forces will secure the marchers,” stated Jerusalem District Police Spokesman Doron Ben-Amo. “We have learned the lessons from the events of last year’s march, and after weeks of work, we are ready to deal with any possible scenario.”

During last year’s march, Yishai Schlissel, a Jewish Orthodox man, went on a stabbing rampage that claimed the life of 16-year-old Shira Banki, who attended the march in solidarity with her LGBT friends.

Schlissel was convicted in 2005 for a similar stabbing rampage at a Jerusalem gay pride march that summer. He served a term of 10 years and was released just three weeks before the 2015 Jerusalem march. Despite Schlissel’s public insistence following his first prison release that he would again stab homosexuals, the authorities failed to stop him from carrying out the deadly attack in 2015 for which he is now serving a life sentence in prison.

According to Ben-Amo, the police this year have taken into account statements, social media outbursts, and other “evidence collected by police intelligence officers on potential suspects who intend to hurt and disrupt the march.”

The police have contacted at least eight individuals who made threats against the march and have warned them against being in Jerusalem on Thursday. “Some of the individuals were issued restraining orders barring them from the march, which they reluctantly signed,” a source told TPS.

In addition to making use of intelligence, police will use measures on the ground on Thursday that will include individual security checks at the entrance and exit points of the march route.

According to the police, there will only be three points along the route of the march from which participants could enter and exit this year so as to facilitate police security measures and the safety of the marchers.

“No one will be allowed into the march with a weapon, even if it is a licensed firearm,” explained Ben-Amo. “The only armed personnel in and around the march will be police and security forces.”

A group of anti-LGBT activists and religious nationalist figures led by Benzi Gopstein and the Lehava organization are scheduled to hold a protest rally against the march simultaneously in front its commencement point in Jerusalem’s Liberty Bell Park. Police special forces will be deployed between the protesters and the starting point of the pride parade.

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