Lawmakers ask Knesset to fly rainbow flag for Pride Month
The gay pride flag should be displayed in the Knesset plenum and outside the building near the Israeli flag next week in honor of the final week of Pride Month, Yesh AtidTelem MK Yorai Lahav Hertzanu told Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin and director-general Samy Backalash on Wednesday.
Lahav Hertzanu wrote to Levin and Backalash that the flag should be hung in the Knesset to show solidarity with gay pride demonstrations being held on Sunday in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba.
“The pride flag represents tolerance, equality and justice,” he wrote. “The capital of Israel should embrace those values, and the Knesset, which prides itself on its diversity, should set an example for the entire world. We should not surrender to the extremists who promise darkness and violence.”
Neither the speaker nor the director-general responded within 24 hours. A Knesset spokesman said he had no comment and that if Backalash decides to respond, he will.
The MK said his request was inspired by the news that inspectors from the Jerusalem Municipality ordered the US Embassy to remove a banner marking Pride Month at a building belonging to the embassy near the Old City on Tuesday, after Deputy Mayor Arieh King complained that the banner was displayed illegally and called it an “impurity.”
Lahav Hertzanu entered the Knesset last week as part of the Expanded Norwegian Law. When he joined, the number of openly gay MKs rose from five to a record six.
Tzvi Joffre contributed to this report.