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Some 60,000 people attended a rally on Sunday night at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, according to police estimates, by organizing a day of demonstrations and a partial strike in the country to support equality LGBT rights.
The call to strike and protests were triggered by the amendment to the surrogacy law and the actions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – saying Monday that he supports the maternity of substitution for single fathers, but vote Wednesday against an amendment that would have done that. But the wave of protests, which has accelerated in recent days, seems to go far beyond opposition to a specific law, linking more generally what protesters say is a deprivation of LGBT rights. in many aspects of life.
At the rally in Tel Aviv, Itzik Shmuli, a member of the Zionist Union in the Knesset, said: "We will no longer be silent, this fight is not just about the rights of the community [LGBT] but the 39th image of the community.This is the 21st century, people are not sitting at the back of the bus because of the color of their skin and they will not be deprived of the right to. to be parents because of their focus [badual] Netanyahu sold the most important for us as a society to an extremist minority in his government for foreign political interests, the value of equality. "
>> Why the battle for gay rights in Israel goes through parenting, not marriage
Actress Gila Almagor, who attended the rally in Tel Aviv, told Haaretz: "The lack of equality is shouting to the sky.I am proud and upright, but why yes for women singles and not for a father? "Is everything just politics and not morality, she asked? "What happened to her is unprecedented."
Protesters against the law on surrogacy
Speaking at the rally in Tel Aviv, Chen Arieli, co-chair of The Aguda, Israel's national LGBT task force, called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "look at this place, there has a grievance here that asks for action and not press releases. It's our turn, Prime Minister, to tell you no. No to empty statements, no for empty PR meetings we ask for action, come with me, Prime Minister, to meet your people, "said Arieli.
Earlier in Tel Aviv, protesters briefly blocked the southbound lanes of the Ayalon road. Two protesters were arrested in Jerusalem after disrupting traffic in the city center. The protesters also briefly blocked the main roads in Haifa and Be & # 39; er Sheva. In the city of Afula, in the north of the country, 200 people demonstrated.
The Israeli army said that soldiers participating in protests across the country would not be punished, contrary to a previous statement in which the military declared that it prohibited soldiers from participating . "Since the demonstration is ostensibly political, it is forbidden to take part in the demonstration," the statement said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Workers' Committee expressed its support for the LGBT community: "We want to express our solidarity with the ministry's employees who work in Israel and abroad, who are often exposed to insults and abuse. contempt based on their baduality. orientation."
Some protesters also set up a tent on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv. The protesters chanted slogans against the government and in support of the LGBT fight for equal rights. "If someone tries to stop our fight for equality, they will find out that we are going to stop the whole country," they chanted.
The President Meretz's party, Tamar Zandberg, said: "This week, the government voted against Israeli citizens, show them that Israel is stronger and more determined than the government."
"Equality rights are a fundamental aspect of democracy and we will continue to be here and everywhere to support equality," Zandberg added.
Hundreds of protesters also demonstrated near the government offices in Haifa and blocked Haatzmaut Street in the lower part of the city carrying rainbow flags and streamers saying, "There is no has no equality, no discrimination! and "we will not surrender, we will win". The protesters also chanted slogans against Israeli Minister of Education Naftali Bennett and the government.
Sympathy for the demonstration was unusually widespread. Hundreds of employers have announced that they would allow employees to observe the strike without penalty. The Histadrut trade union federation has expressed support, and various companies have published advertisements for support.
"I believe this fight is receiving a lot of support because it affects a lot of people on a personal level," said Knesset lobbyist Oded Frid: "LGBT people, their families, their friends and the entire public the rights of the community and has trouble accepting the lack of equality and clear discrimination. "
Such a person is Gilad Ben Ari of Tel Aviv. His daughter, Gal, 24, lives with his partner in Nahariya, and he believes that the rights of the gay community are related to the rights of all members of modern society. "The fundamental right to be who you are, the fundamental right to be a parent," he says. "As the father of a bad girl, I feel more compelled to fight for the right to live quietly and safely," he said.
Even before the surrogacy law, Ben Ari stood by his side at every opportunity, but now he feels the fight has to be taken up a notch. "Fighting also means talking everywhere and in all conversations about human rights and against ignorant societies in the world we live in, the danger for a society that can accept such discrimination."
Other issues that have made headlines in recent days also relate to how government policies affect specific groups. This began with the detention of a conservative rabbi who presided over a marriage under the aegis of the Chief Rabbinate and continued with the nation-state law, which states that the The right to national self-determination in Israel is exclusive to the Jewish people. Although he states that it does not affect the status of Arabic, he defines Hebrew as the official language of the country, while Arabic is given a status special, but these issues did not ignite anger like the surrogacy law.
"The struggles for the identity of certain groups or … implying that weaker groups are wrongly considered irrelevant to the public, and people therefore remain indifferent," he said. MK Shmuli. When a fight also involves the middle clbad, there is more chance for a mbad protest, he claimed.
The current protest of LGBTs is such a fight, said Shmuli, who was a leader of social protest in the summer of 2011. The economic hurdle of GPA – the cost is between 120,000 $ and $ 130,000 – is very relevant for the middle clbad, explained Shmuli, adding that the protest concerns discrimination that affects many people, he says.
Omer and Almog Bar-Lev Shiloah have been together for seven years. Two years ago, they decided to expand their family. They had only one possibility: surrogacy in the United States. Not only was it expensive, but it took an emotional cost. "It's such an important process in our lives and we had to do it away from a 15-hour flight," Omer told Haaretz. "When there are difficulties in pregnancy, you can not just rebadure yourself, you can not feel babies during pregnancy." The couple's twins, a girl and a boy, were born in January. Any desire they may have to give their children siblings only remains that, a desire, given the difficulties that the state puts in their way, says Omer.
The way of surrogacy for gay men is not completely closed. The High Court of Justice now hears a petition from Itay and Yoav Pinkas-Arad, filed before the adoption of the law. The court would not hear the case as long as the law was pending, but now this phase has pbaded. "Having tabled the petition almost nine years ago, we are disappointed with the shameful decision of the Knesset," Itay Pinkas told Haaretz. But he said that he was "encouraged and proud" that the protest had spread to so many parts of society.
Hagai Kalai, a lawyer who represents the LGBT community in most of the High Court's petitions, says many people "feel the direct connection between discrimination against the LGBT community and other attacks on the liberal lifestyle, like the separation of men and women, public spaces applying rules of modesty, "he says.
The leader of the reformist movement in Israel, Rabbi Gilad Kariv, also identifies with this aspect. "Most Israelis do not want Israel to be a haven for extremists, but to be a place that fosters tolerance, equality and acceptance." After a week in which deputies Did not understand this fact, the protest of the gay community that sweeps the audience reminds us that the Israeli future will not be decided in the legislature, but in the children's gardens, parks, streets and squares, and by the will of the Israeli public to stand up against zeal and intolerance. "
Moti Milrod
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