‘Here to stay’: Hundreds at Pride parade in flashpoint southern town of Mitzpe Ramon

Hundreds of people attended the sixth annual Pride march in the small southern town of Mitzpe Ramon on Friday, where a conservative religious group with ties to the local leadership had posted anti-LGBTQ propaganda ahead of the event.

Footage from the parade, which took place under heavy security, showed dozens of marchers clad in pink chanting “here to stay.”

The parade drew several opposition lawmakers and candidates from the primaries of the left-wing Democrats party.

Activist Naor Narkis, posted a clip on X of a local resident who said a group of religious children threw eggs at him as he was participating in the event.

“And that happened after, two days ago, they tore down the Pride flag I had outside my house, within three hours of my putting it up,” the man, who said his name was Mor, added.

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Fellow Democrats MK Naama Lazimi also attended the parade, writing on X: “We won’t leave any city or child behind. We’ll keep fighting for real education and equality all over the country.”

מצעד הגאווה במצפה רמון!

מול ההסתה המקומית הגוברת, היה לי חשוב להגיע היום יחד עם בן זוגי אבי, ועם ילדיי רונה אסתר ואראל ציון, לצעוד יחד עם הקהילה המקומית.

אנחנו לא נשאיר אף עיר ואף ילד מאחור. נמשיך להיאבק על חינוך ושוויון אמיתי בכל רחבי הארץ. @DemocratsIL pic.twitter.com/cLPFMp5v7T

— Naama Lazimi – נעמה לזימי (@naamalazimi) June 26, 2026

And MK Eitan Ginzburg, an openly gay lawmaker from the centrist Blue and White party, posted a photo of himself at the parade and wrote: “In the face of a dark and homophobic government that seeks to return Israel backward, we marched today in Mitzpe Ramon with a demand to take Israel forward.”

Michal Romi, one of the organizers of the parade, said in a column on the Mako news site Thursday that, despite hostility from the local government, “we’re still here, trying to live our life, and reminding that if freedom disappears in Mitzpe Ramon, then Tel Aviv is also in danger.”

She told the Ynet news site that the local religious community launched a campaign on Friday “to intimidate the LGBTQ community” with anti-LGBTQ messages posted across the town in the early morning.

Photos from the town of about 5,800 showed banners and flyers extolling traditional families, and reading “family wins” and “there is no pride without family.”

The material was promoted by and bore the insignia of Bocharim BaMishpacha (Choosing Family), a conservative Zionist religious group supported by prominent arch-conservative Rabbi Zvi Tau, the spiritual leader of the anti-LGBTQ Noam party.

אכן "המשפחה מנצחת"

רק שהחרד"לים במצפה רמון מנסים לכפות שהמושג משפחה תקף *רק* לדגם מסויים של משפחה.

אבל כן, בהחלט להט"בים בישראל נלחמים בשיניים כדי להקים משפחה, רק שזה בדגם שמתאים להם ולא בדגם שמנסים לכפות עליהם.. pic.twitter.com/aHRCtulZOf

— קובי הנדלסמן (@kobih85) June 26, 2026

Tau’s disciple Rabbi Zvi Kostiner, another prominent backer of the party, heads Mitzpe Ramon’s Midbara K’Eden yeshiva, among the largest yeshivas in Israel that are aligned with the movement.

The yeshiva, founded in 1999, is at the locus of the town’s religious community. A graduate, Eliya Winter, became local council head in 2024.

On Friday, without mentioning the anti-Pride fliers and banners, Winter wrote on Facebook that, “for the entire past month, there have been efforts by irresponsible parties to cause tension.”

“The media, thirsty for a juicy story about communities fighting in Mitzpe Ramon, was listening constantly, but to its dismay it did not get what it wanted,” he wrote.

????מצעד הגאווה במצפה רמון????

לאורך המסלול הרבה שלטים ״המשפחה מנצחת״,״מאמינים במשפחה״ ו״גאווה אמיתית =גאווה לאומית״ למרות שאף אחד לא ביקש לשלול מאיש את אורח חייו.

כל מה שאנשי הקהילה מבקשים הוא לחיות בשוויון, בכבוד ובביטחון.

דווקא מי שבחר להפוך את היום הזה למפגן של הדרה, הזכיר… pic.twitter.com/gQVkDOd3m1

— Roni (@Ron198413) June 26, 2026

Kostiner sparked controversy when, amid his community’s efforts to scrap the parade’s 2022 iteration, he told students, “don’t be shy, be brave, wherever you work, say: ‘Go home LGBTQ, go home gays.’”

Police at the time planned to move the parade to the outskirts of Mitzpe Ramon, citing security concerns, but the High Court, responding to petitions by the LGBTQ community, ordered the parade to be held on its original path.

The first Pride parade in Mitzpe Ramon, held in 2021, came in direct response to a scandal when previous council head Roni Marom refused to accept a dedicated budget for the LGBTQ community that had already been allocated by the government.

The town continued to hold its parade in the years immediately after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, while the far larger celebration in Tel Aviv was canceled amid the subsequent multi-front war.