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LGBT pride banners vandalized in several cities in Israel

There were at least five attempts to remove LGBT pride flags in Israel during the past year; some of them involved vandalism.
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Ravit Baranes was shocked. As she walked around her garden, she suddenly noticed that the LGBT pride flag that had been hanging there had disappeared. Going through footage of a surveillance camera, the mystery was solved. During daylight hours on Aug. 8, a man climbed the wall surrounding her house with the aim of removing the multicolored flag Ravit and her husband, Shay, had installed on the top of the barrier. At first, the man failed to take the flag down. Then he came back with a knife and simply cut it off.

‘’On Saturday, a vile person who we do not know decided to take down the flag that was hanging in our courtyard. The flag was distributed by the Ramat Gan municipality in the framework of the LGBT Pride Month, and was installed in our yard by my father-in-law, who is by the way religious. He (my father-in-law) simply responded to my request, honored my wish and posted it. ... A vile and despicable man chose to take the flag down, but this will not prevent us from following the path we believe in. A path of honoring, cooperating with and listening to the other,’’ wrote Baranes on Facebook. To the press she explained that she and her husband decided to hang the pride flag as an educational act, for their children to grow up respecting all people.

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