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<\/a><\/p>\nMarchers take part in the Roma Pride parade in Rome, June 11, 2022. (Camelia Boban\/Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In a statement that came out Monday, Roma Pride said Keshet Italia had failed to endorse its political manifesto, which characterized Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza as a genocide. It also accused the organization of making an \u201cunacceptable lexical distinction,\u201d by refusing to use the word \u201cgenocide\u201d to describe Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza in the aftermath of the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.<\/p>\n
Keshet Italia, which has no affiliation with the Israeli government or the State of Israel, called the move antisemitic in a Facebook message posted Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoma Pride has dropped the mask,\u201d the statement read. \u201cIn an unprecedented act of exclusion, Keshet Italia, the only Italian Jewish LGBTQIA+ organization, was first denied access to the coordination and then even the possibility of marching with its own float. Our crime? Being Jewish.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Keshet Italia members could still march on foot with flags and banners, the group said that was not a viable option due to safety concerns in the wake of Oct. 7, which is why they had requested a float.<\/p>\n
While anyone can march in the parade, a float requires a formal request.<\/p>\n
The decision comes one year after Keshet members were attacked at the parade by marchers who called them terrorists and murderers, made Nazi salutes and attempted to rush the float. Police were forced to evacuate the group before the end of the parade. <\/p>\n
Roma Pride\u2019s latest decision drew immediate condemnation from Jewish organizations across Italy. The Jewish community of Rome called it \u201ca blatant act of discrimination against Italian citizens solely because they are Jewish.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Union of Italian Jewish Communities wrote in a statement, \u201cNo one should be required to pass an ideological test to participate in a space born with the goal of inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the culmination of years of discrimination, and it hurts us deeply because we helped build Roma Pride,\u201d Keshet Italia President Ariel Heller told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Keshet Italia has been participating in Roma Pride for more than a decade. <\/p>\n
\u201cJewish LGBT people were foundational to this movement,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The exclusion, Heller said, was the result of a lengthy process that unfolded over the past year, during which Keshet Italia made several attempts to meet with the march organizers to build a relationship and contribute to drafting this year\u2019s annual manifesto. <\/p>\n
Those efforts culminated in a meeting with parade organizers on Monday, who told Heller that they had already written the manifesto, and that Keshet couldn\u2019t participate with a float, though they could walk in the parade, according to Heller.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them, \u2018You know perfectly well that wouldn\u2019t be safe for us, also in light of what happened last year,\u2019\u201d Heller said. \u201cAnd they shrugged. They simply didn\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roma Pride did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. According to Heller, the organization issued a statement on Instagram announcing the exclusion within 15 minutes of the Jewish representatives leaving the meeting.<\/p>\n
Keshet Italia has called on Rome\u2019s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, not to attend the parade. \u201cYou cannot spend Roman citizens\u2019 money to fund exclusion,\u201d Heller said.<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Keshet Italia board member Dafna Terracina told JTA that after the board heard of the organization\u2019s exclusion, \u201cThere was anger, disbelief, and also memories that inevitably called to mind our grandparents\u2019 accounts of the exclusions they experienced during the [Second World] War.\u201d <\/p>\n
She added, \u201cReducing the participation of our organization to a geopolitical stance means turning Pride into a space of conditional belonging: You are accepted only if you think a certain way. That\u2019s not inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, she said she found even more troubling the implicit message that Jewish people must constantly justify themselves, distance themselves from Israel, and prove they deserve a place in public spaces. The climate, she added, risks fueling antisemitism \u201cbecause it uses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to delegitimize people on the basis of their Jewish identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you start deciding which minorities are acceptable enough to be included,\u201d she said, \u201cPride loses its original purpose and becomes itself an instrument of exclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roma Pride\u2019s political manifesto also draws an explicit parallel between the Palestinian cause and Italy\u2019s anti-fascist Resistance, stating, \u201cThe Resistance gave life to our country and our Republic,\u201d and that \u201cto deny the Palestinian people the right to resist and exist would be to deny our own history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roma Pride is organized by a cultural circle named after Mario Mieli (1952-1983), a pioneering Italian gay activist and writer whose Jewish father was persecuted by the Fascist regime. Mario Mieli, Alfredo Cohen, Corrado Levi were the co-founders of Fuori in 1971, Italy\u2019s first homosexual liberation movement. It was \u201cthe movement that eventually led to the creation of Roma Pride,\u201d Heller said. \u201cExcluding us means excluding a piece of Italian LGBT history.\u201d<\/p>\n