The organizers of an upcoming Rome Pride parade said that they have banned a Jewish LGBTQ organization from participating in it over the group’s refusal to condemn Israeli actions in Gaza as genocide.
Roma Pride said last week that after failed meetings with Keshet Italia and Keshet Europe, the Jewish LGBTQ groups would not be allowed a float in the June 20 parade.
Only those who upheld the declared political values and demands of Roma Pride would be permitted to participate in the event, according to the statement. The organizers said that one of those values was their belief that Israel was carrying out a genocide against Palestinians.
“We clearly distinguish the difference between the Israeli government and the LGBTQIA+ Jewish community, and we could never hold the latter responsible for war criminal acts committed by a genocidal government,” Roma Pride said.
“We hold Keshet Italia responsible, however, for not having distanced itself and not intending to distance itself from the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” it continued.
Keshet Italia slammed Roma Pride as antisemitic in a press release, saying that the “unprecedented exclusion” of the only Italian Jewish LGBTQ organization was a removal of a mask from the organizers’ faces.
“There is no pride if minorities are excluded,” Keshet Italia said. “We do not accept lessons in rights from those who practice identity-based exclusion. Antisemitism disguised as political positioning remains antisemitism.”
The Italian Jewish group called on Italian and Roman politicians and activists to take action against the ban.
Keshet Europe said on Instagram that it was alarmed by how Roma Pride had used its power to target its Italian branch in the media, shifting the landscape from debate to amplifying hostility toward the Jewish LGBTQ community.
“Critique within our movements is legitimate. But using institutional power and public platforms to delegitimize Jewish LGBTQIA+ voices crosses a demarcation line that cannot be ignored,” Keshet Europe said.
“At the heart of it all lies a simple, fundamental aspiration, one that should require no justification in a democratic Europe: the freedom to march at Pride as we are. Visibly Jewish. Visibly Queer. Without condition, without compromise, and without fear,” it added.
The Union of Italian Jewish Communities condemned Roma Pride’s decision as well, saying that the move risked normalizing the ostracism of Jewish and other citizens unless they adhered to specific political positions and interpretations of international events.
“No one should be called upon to pass an ideological test to be able to participate in a space born to include and guarantee dignity and rights to people, regardless of their identity, affiliation, or background,” it said.
Italian politician and European Parliament Vice President Pina Picierno echoed the sentiment on X/Twitter, noting that a liberal democracy could not impose political tests to determine whether one could participate in public events.
While the Israeli government and its decisions could be criticized as with any other state, she said, excluding an organization because it did not conform created dangerous boundaries.
“Ideological purity has always been a terrible organizer of collective freedoms,” Picierno said.
Roma Pride participants must accept group's manifesto
Roma Pride had said that anyone who participated in its Pride events had to accept its political manifesto. The document touched on dozens of political issues, including the situation in the Levant.
According to Roma Pride, “In particular, we strongly condemn the ongoing genocide and violence in Gaza by the State of Israel, which, in arrogant disregard for international law, targets the Palestinian civilian population.”
“We denounce the occupation of Palestinian territories and demand an end to settlements in the West Bank and full recognition of Palestine as a free, sovereign, and self-determined state, as well as the military escalation and grave violations also affecting Lebanon and its civilian population,” it said.
Roma Pride added that resistance had given birth to modern Italy, and that denying the Palestinians’ “right to resist” would be a denial of its own national history.
Keshet Italia said that its barring from the parade was a culmination of longstanding hostility in which Roma Pride was silent about the abuse suffered by Jewish participants at the 2025 parade.
According to a Facebook post last June, Rome Pride participants waving a rainbow pride flag emblazoned with a Star of David were jeered with calls of “murderers.”
Several days later, Keshet Italia said that Toscana Pride had asked them not to join their parade with the Jewish pride flag due to security issues.
Further, the group did not participate in that year’s Milan and Bologna Pride parades, feeling unsafe after the harassment participants had undergone in Rome.