TEL AVIV GAY CENTRE FACES CLOSURE

The LGBT youth centre in Tel Aviv that was the scene of the infamous murder of two people two years ago could close due to lack of funds.

On the 1st of August 2009, a masked individual entered the Bar Noar centre, the Tel Aviv branch of the Aguda Israeli LGBT Association, and shot dead 16-year-old Liz Trubishi and 26-year-old counsellor Nir Katz.

The shooting, which also left fifteen people wounded, remains unsolved and is seen as the worst attack on the LGBT community in Israel’s history.

Haaretz newspaper reports that “the youth club might have to suspend its weekly evening programming due to financial problems. Management says it’s deliberating whether to hold a final evening of activities Friday”.

The centre, which sees 60 to 80 gay youth meeting every week, has been vandalised four times in the last month. It has also had to pay for a security guard since the shooting.

“Bar Noar is like my second home,” counsellor Mor Rosen, who first visited the club when she was 14, told Haaretz. “I grew up there. I know the children’s situation.”

“Up to now, we have depended on fantastic people, private individuals who have opened their hearts and pockets to contribute. And that’s basically how we were able to exist. It’s not enough anymore,” she said.

Activists have called on local and national authorities to assist the centre in order for it to stay open.