Hundreds of Tel Aviv Residents Protest Against Hate Crimes

More than two hundred demonstrators took to Tel Aviv’s main streets, blocking traffic, to protest against homophobia and racism Saturday night.

Protesters marched the streets in the wake of recent deadly stabbing at a gay parade in Jerusalem and another terrorist attack in the West Bank village of Duma, the second one in the last two weeks.

According to the Jerusalim Post, people gathered on Rothschild Avenue, on the corner of Nahmani street and on King George Street in front of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party headquarters. The members of the left-wing Meretz party and the Jewish-Arab communist Hadash party were among the protestors, media reports.

Demonstrators were holding signs reading "homophobia and racism breed the same violence” and chanting slogans against Bayit Yehudi party policy and the actions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Incitement begins with the prime minister,” people cried.

Protesters also stepped out against right-wing anti-assimilation organization Lahava, which is known for its hostile attitude towards the LGBT community in Israel. The members of the organization earlier equated homosexuals with criminals.

This demonstration follows rallies, which were held across Israel last week, but this particular one attracted fewer protesters than those, according to local media reports.

Two accidents are believed to have incited protesters in Tel Aviv: the ultra-Orthodox extremist attack on participants in Jerusalem’s  gay pride parade, in which six people were stabbed, and the firebombing of the house of a four-member family on the West bank, which resulted in two deaths.