Tel Aviv stabbing: Hundreds protest attack on 16-year-old living in LGBT centre
Protestors waved rainbow and trans flags in Tel Aviv. (Kann News/Twitter)
More than a thousand people took to the streets of Tel Aviv after a 16-year-old was stabbed outside of an LGBT+ youth centre.
Protestors waved rainbow and trans flags as they marched in their hundreds on Sunday (July 28), in protest at Friday’s (July 26) attack which left a teenage boy in a serious condition.
“Tel Aviv will not prevent the next child being hurt,” trans activist Lila Blilat told The Jerusalem Post.
כאלף איש צועדים בצעדת קהילת הלהט”ב בתל אביב תחת הכותרת “נלחמות על החיים שלנו”@OferHalfonKan pic.twitter.com/sfgKQL8HBE
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) July 28, 2019
“Today I shout ‘enough.’ We’re not talking targets or punching bags.”
Teenager was stabbed ‘by his own brother’
Reports have suggested that the victim was attacked by his own brother outside of Beit Dror, an emergency shelter for LGBT+ youth where he had moved to escape family pressures to adopt a religious lifestyle.
After the assault, the teenager was taken to Ichilov hospital with wounds to his chest and leg which required surgery. He is said to be in a serious but stable condition.
Multiple groups have labelled the attack a hate crime, including the Israeli LGBTQ+ Youth Organization (IGY), which told The Times of Israel: “This stabbing was not coincidental.
“This is a hate crime against the LGBT community. There is a price for the insinuations and LGBT-phobia we hear everyday.”
Tel Aviv attack linked to ‘ongoing incitement’ against LGBT+ community
Etai Pinkas-Arad, a councillor who advises the mayor on LGBT+ affairs, suggested that the attack was linked to “the ongoing incitement against the gay community” from Israeli officials.
“When the country is full of inciting billboards, when our religious leaders are willing to sacrifice our blood, and the education minister wants to convert us, then some people are hearing that message and are taking action,” he was quoted as saying by The Times of Israel.
In June, officials in Jerusalem ordered the removal of posters opposing the city’s annual Pride event.
Just a few weeks later in early July, widespread protests were held after Israel’s education minister Rafi Peretz declared his support for so-called gay conversion therapy, and suggested that he had tried to convert a gay person himself.
He later retracted his remarks.
