Zini cancels Shin Bet Pride Month event, pulls budget from LGBTQ group – report

Shin Bet director David Zini recently ordered the cancellation of a planned Pride Month event within the security agency and blocked a series of related initiatives, effectively shutting down the organization’s LGBTQ employee group, Channel 12 reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, organizers were informed at an advanced stage of preparations that the event would not be approved. Sources familiar with the matter told the network that the directive came from high up in the Shin Bet’s chain of command, allegedly from Zini, with no clear explanation for the decision.

Channel 12 said the requests to display Pride-themed banners and screensavers, hang Pride flags at the event venue, produce event stickers and distribute LGBTQ-related content through the Shin Bet systems were all denied.

The report also claimed that the agency’s human resources department was instructed to transfer the LGBTQ group’s budget into the Shin Bet’s general budget, leaving it with no dedicated funding, effectively shutting down the group.

The move reportedly sparked criticism among some Shin Bet employees and LGBTQ rights advocates, who described it as a departure from the values of equality and inclusion that the agency has promoted in recent years.

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The report noted that the purported move to cut the group’s funding sets the Shin Bet apart from other security and political bodies in Israel. Both the Mossad and the Israel Police have active groups for their LGBTQ staff, and the Knesset hosts an, albeit informal, LGBTQ caucus, headed by Yesh Atid MK Yorai Lahav-Hertzanu.

The Shin Bet declined to comment on the report, according to Channel 12.

Israel’s main LGBTQ group, Aguda, said it was “shocked” by the report and demanded that Zini “immediately reverse his decision.”

In a statement posted online, the organization suggested that Zini focus on the “unprecedented security threats” that Israel is currently facing, instead of “silencing and excluding his LGBTQ employees.”

Opposition lawmakers voiced similar criticism of Zini, accusing him of discriminating against LGBTQ service members.

“Our LGBTQ service members are just as good as any other service member and save Israeli lives just like any other service member,” said Opposition Leader Yair Lapid. “I want to tell them today: We are proud of you and grateful for you. In the government we establish, there will be no place for such dark views in Israel’s public sphere.

Lapid has long been a champion of LGBTQ rights. While serving as foreign minister from 2019-2022, he ordered a Pride flag to be raised outside the Foreign Ministry during Pride Month for the first time in Israel’s history. The practice was ended by the current government.

Yair Golan, the chair of the left-wing Democrats party, also reiterated his support for the LGBTQ community in the wake of the report.

“LGBTQ people are not a threat to Israel’s security,” he wrote on X. “Discrimination, extremism and messianism are the threat. The Shin Bet should be a home for everyone who serves the country loyally and professionally, regardless of their identity.”

Golan’s comments appeared to be a thinly-veiled reference to Zini’s own ideology, as the Shin Bet director has described himself as having “messianic” views.

Not everyone took issue with the report, however, and Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli appeared to suggest there was a connection between security agencies addressing concerns of their LGBTQ employees and the failures of said agencies in preventing the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre.

“One of the memories burned into my mind from the evening of October 7 is the entrance to the government meeting in the Kirya [IDF headquarters] in Tel Aviv,” he wrote on X. “In front of the building where the meeting was held, in the heart of the Kirya, a huge neon sign read: ‘Adviser to the chief of staff on gender affairs.'”

“I remember well that the first thought that came to my mind was how unfortunate it was that they didn’t invest all that energy in an adviser for border protection,” he wrote, adding that it is “not the role of national security agencies to promote gender and LGBTQ agendas.”

The role of the IDF chief of staff’s gender affairs adviser is unrelated to the LGBTQ community, and instead deals with issues faced by women serving in the IDF, including those who are victims of sexual violence and abuse.

Sam Sokol contributed to this report.