A crowd estimated by Haaretz to number in the tens of thousands defied threats of violence Saturday to attend the “Staying Proud” rally at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square. They gathered to commemorate the victims of last week’s shooting at a center for gay and lesbian youth that left two dead and 12 wounded.
Gay Pride rainbow flags waved over the huge crowd of about 25,000 throughout the evening as a many of Israel’s best known singers performed for the rally.
“We are the people of ‘Thou shall not kill’, ” said Shimon Peres, Israel’s president when he took the stage. He said the murderer at the LGBT Center hurt everyone in Israel.
“The gunshots that hit the gay community earlier this week hit us all. As people. As Jews. As Israelis,” Peres said. “The person who pointed the gun at Nir Katz and Liz Trubeshi pointed it at all of you as well, at all of us, at you, at me. There can be no gunmen within us.”
Uri Gil, who was injured during the attack on the center, took the stage together with his friend Chen Langer. “That place was a warm and loving home for them and they met wonderful people there,” Gil said according to Ynet News.
“This past week I have been haunted by nightly fear, especially when I think that the murderer is walking around out there,” Gil added. “No murderer will keep us in the closet.”
Langer, a youth counselor at the center, told the crowd, “This is the day in which we cease to be silent, to hide, and to alter the appearance of reality.”
Langer tearfully added, according to Ynet, “The home that was a place of security for youths became a slaughterhouse of youths.”
Early in the evening, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai told the crowd that his city felt a profound failure following the attack by a masked gunman last Saturday that killed Nir Katz, one of Langer’s fellow counselors, and Liz Trobishi.
More...