[IsraelTimes] The organizers of the Rome Pride Parade, which is set to take place on June 20 in the Italian capital, have announced that the Jewish LGBTQ groups Keshet Italia and Keshet Europe will not be allowed to join the parade with a float, as they did not distance themselves from what they describe as the “genocide in Gaza.”
“Anyone who shares the founding values of our movement and our community can join us in the streets,” reads a statement shared on the Roma Pride official Facebook channel. “Participation of a float in the Roma Pride therefore presupposes — regardless of the sexual orientation, identity, religion, ethnicity, or nationality of those aboard — a clear and unequivocal stance condemning the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli government.”
“We are fully capable of distinguishing between the Israeli government and the Jewish community, made up of both LGBTQIA+ and non-LGBTQIA+ people, and we could never attribute to the latter responsibility for the criminal acts of war carried out by a genocidal government,” it adds. “We do, however, hold Keshet Italia responsible for having failed, and continue to fail, to distance itself from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
According to the statement, the decision was taken after the Roma Pride organizers met with representatives of Keshet Italia and Europe.
Israel firmly rejects the accusation of any form of genocide in Gaza, maintaining that it does its best to minimize civilian casualties in the Strip.
“The Roma Pride has shown its true colors,” Keshet Italia says in a statement. “Our crime? To be Jewish. This is just the last step in a hostile path. Last year, during the parade, we received explicit antisemitic attacks, and the Roma Pride chose to remain silent, refusing to condemn them. Today, that silence has become active complicity.”
Earlier this month, Keshet Italia published a long statement on Instagram about its position on several issues related to the Middle East conflict.
“While the conflict in the region is not our area of expertise, we feel close to the suffering of the Palestinian people,” the statement read. “However, we ask people to be careful with the language used to refer to this war.”
“The word ‘genocide’ is not neutral; it evokes a specific historic [occurrence],” it added. “We are especially concerned with the sentence that we keep on hearing that ‘the Jewish people are carrying out what they were subjected to,’ a sentence that does not just refer to a conflict or a government but ends up connecting what is happening to the whole Jewish people.”
European Jewish leaders call on Belgium to stop prosecution of mohels, say it undermines religious freedom
[IsraelITimes] Jewish leaders from across Europe have issued an open letter urging Belgian and European officials to intervene after courts in Antwerp moved to prosecute mohels — men who perform Jewish ritual circumcision.
The letter, penned by the European Jewish Association, says the prosecution effectively criminalizes circumcision and undermines the right to freedom of religion, and calls the effort an attack on religious freedom and Jewish life in Europe.
The appeal follows a decision made earlier this month by the Antwerp Public Prosecutor’s Office to prosecute two mohels last year. A third person, who filmed the event, was not charged, an EJA representative noted.
The court’s decision was met at the time with anger by political figures around the globe, including Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White.
Laws in Belgium require that medical procedures can only be performed by a licensed doctor, and the mohels do not have that certification, despite training in the Jewish circumcision ritual, EJA notes. Efforts to create a licensing mechanism to allow them to operate legally in the country have not been successful.
The EJA letter accuses Belgian authorities of refusing to compromise, and describes the case as discriminatory and “antisemitic in nature.” Other countries, including France, the Netherlands and Germany, have found ways to balance religious freedom with medical oversight, the letter notes.
“We remind Belgium that freedom of religion is a fundamental right,” the letter states. “The message being sent here is clear: Jews are no longer welcome in Belgium.”
“Circumcision is not a crime,” the letter concludes.
Ireland aims to pass law curbing goods trade with West Bank settlements by mid-July, FM says
[IsraelTimes] Ireland aims to pass a law curbing goods trade with West Bank settlements by mid-July, Foreign Minister Helen McEntee says.
Ireland’s government, one of the most outspoken critics of Israel, first promised to sanction Israeli settlements in October 2024. The legislation has since been held up by pressure from opposition politicians who aimed to extend the ban also to services trade, on one side, and international company lobbyists seeking to scrap the bill, on the other.
Sources told Reuters last October that the bill was set to be limited to goods. Prime Minister Micheal Martin confirmed that last week and said widening the scope to services was neither “implementable” nor “viable.”
Limiting the bill to goods only will impact just a handful of products, such as fruit, which are worth just 200,000 euros ($234,660) a year, Ireland’s Central Statistics Office said.
Business groups warned that the wider category of services could pull foreign multinational companies into unworkable sanctions.
“We have consistently advocated for a peaceful solution… but it’s very clear from the actions taken most recently by the Israeli government, but in particular the continued increase in settler violence, the escalation in settler violence in the West Bank, the continued violence in Lebanon, that they have no desire to take this particular road,” McEntee tells reporters.
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