The start of Pride Month in Israel was a reminder that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) rights still cannot be taken for granted: organizers and liberal MPs have received death threats ahead of several parades.

The Pride Parade in the religious town of Netivot was canceled after ammunition was sent to the family of one of the organizers.

Threatened Thursday's parade on King David Street in West Jerusalem.

On social media, posts from an account called The Brothers of Yishai Schlissel addressed Emuna Klein Barnoy, the director of the Jerusalem Open House organizer, and several members of the Knesset: “The fate of Shira Banki awaits you “.

The 16-year-old Banki died in the Jerusalem Pride Parade in 2015 when she and five other people were attacked with a knife.

The perpetrator Yishai Schlissel, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, had just been released from prison after stabbing three people at the parade ten years earlier.

2400 emergency services, 180 potential attackers under observation

Above all, the march in Jerusalem, in which thousands of people take part every year, is once again a high-security event.

The police blocked the march route and mobilized 2,400 emergency services.

180 potential attackers were under surveillance.

A 21-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly sending death threats.

Right-wing and orthodox forces in particular, such as the radical Jewish supremacist group Lehava, which has again organized counter-demonstrations, are opposed to the LGBTQI community.

Same-sex marriages have not yet been legalized in Israel.

Right-wing parties such as the religious-Zionist Otzma Jehudit (“Jewish Strength”), but also the Islamist Ra'am party and members of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's party Jamina (“To the Right”) repeatedly oppose draft legislation on equality.

The father of the murdered Shira Banki will give the closing speech at the parade in Jerusalem this year.

Ori Banki told radio station Kan: “Only when two men can walk hand in hand through Jerusalem without being spat on, taunted or worse, only then will we stop parading.” The largest “Pride Parade” in Israel, the which has attracted hundreds of thousands of participants in the past, will take place in Tel Aviv next week.