After Pride Attack, Gay Groups Angry With Jerusalem Mayor

Many of Jerusalem's LGBT residents are unhappy with how Mayor Nir Barkat handled the knife attack on Pride attendees July 30, which left 16-year-old Shira Banki dead.

Barkat was on a trip to the U.S. during the attack, presumably for work, and did not cut the three-week stay short after the Pride incident, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports. He returns this week, which was too late for him to pay condolences during the week-long "shiva" mourning period. Defenders of the mayor point out he did issue a public statement after the attack that condemned the murder and offered his condolences to Banki's family. She was one of six people stabbed in the assault by an ultra-Orthodox man who had just finished serving a prison sentence for a similar attack in 2005.

Others criticize Barkat's hands-off approach to Jerusalem's version of an LGBT center, the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance. Barkat has never visited the Open House in his seven years as mayor and didn't indicate he would visit once he returns to Jerusalem. The Open House is asking for more funds following the attack -- allowing for a permanent home for the center and a new part-time employee -- but the mayor's office wouldn't commit to that until he's back in Israel.

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Some say Barkat is being hands-off so he can placate the city's Orthodox population -- the mayor, though, is more liberal than his predecessor. Under Barkat, the city has given a small amount of funding to the Open House, about $63,000 annually, while the previous mayor's administration offered nothing.