60,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Sunday night to rally in support of equal rights for Israel’s LGBT+ population, capping off a day of demonstrations and partial strikes around the country. The outcry began after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced his support for surrogacy for single fathers on Monday but then sided against it in a parliamentary vote; the protests eventually grew to address setbacks LGBT+ people in Israel have experienced under the current government.
Addressing the Tel Aviv rally, Zionist Union Knesset member Itzik Shmuli, who is gay, said: “We will no longer be silent. This struggle is not only about the rights of the [LGBT] community but on the image of the country. This is the 21st century. People are not seated at the back of the bus because of the color of their skin and they will not be deprived of the right to be parents due to their [sexual] orientation. Netanyahu has sold the most important thing to us as a society to an extremist minority in his government for extraneous political interests, the value of equality.”
Hundreds of employers expressed their support for LGBT+ people by announcing that they would allow employees to join the general strike without penalty. Some even published advertisements in support.
Read more at Haaretz