Men Hold Hands in Jerusalem, Are Disparaged

A recent video produced by Israeli website Ynet depicts two men—”Shai and Ophir”—holding hands while they walk through the streets of Jerusalem less than one week since after a Haredi man murdered a 16-year-old girl and wounded five others with a long knife. Since the attack, demonstrations have been held in the Israeli cities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, & Haifa to protest the presence intolerance, homophobia and hatred in Israel.

And yet, as Shai and Ophir are followed by a hidden camera, they are subjected to dirty looks, slurs, and insults, ranging from “all gays are sons of bitches,” to “Have you seen faggot and faggot holding hands?”

Ynet’s footage imitates the formula of a number of other “hidden cam” videos that have emerged over the past year. Last fall with the massively viral “10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman” attempted to show the amount of catcalls and comments women receive when walking through New York City. And in February, French journalist Zvika Klein and photographer Dov Belhassen, inspired by the Woman in NYC video, produced “10 Hours of Walking in Paris as a Jew.” Klein put on a kippah and walked through some of Paris’ rougher neighborhoods, where he was spat at and received comments like “Viva, Palestine.”

In fact, videos with the exact same concept as Ynet’s—in which men hold hands—have been filmed in Moscow, Russia, Kiev, Ukraine, and Luton, England.

So it seems that homophobes will be homophobes regardless of location.

Previous: Teen Stabbed at Jerusalem’s Gay Pride Parade Dies
Six Stabbed at Jerusalem’s Gay Pride Parade