LGBTQ rights in Israel
[10] According to users of the website GayCities, it was ranked as the best gay city in 2011,[11] despite reports of some anti-LGBTQ violence during the 2000s,[12] which were criticized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.Attorney General Meni Mazuz said the couples will be treated the same as common-law spouses, recognizing them as legal units for tax, real estate, and financial purposes.Mazuz made his decision by refusing to appeal a district court ruling in an inheritance case that recognized the legality of a same-sex union, his office said in a statement.[49] The protests also received support from multiple companies, including Apple Inc., Microsoft, Israir Airlines and many more, and an opinion poll conducted in July 2018 found that 57% of Israelis were in favour of surrogacy for same-sex couples.[45] In February 2020, the Israeli Supreme Court unanimously ruled that same-sex couples should be given access to surrogacy, holding that the current law harms the "right to equality" and gave the state one year to amend the existing legislation.In July 2018, the Israeli High Court proposed to make it easier for children raised by same-sex couples to be registered on official documents with the names of both their parents.Supreme Court Justice Neal Hendel said in the decision:[52]The principle of "the good of the child" argues for the recording of his entire family unit, and doesn't permit us to limit ourselves to only one of his parents in the birth certificate….[54][55][56] In March 2024, the Israel Supreme Court ordered that a child and children of "both two parties of the female same-sex couple" - must be corrected as well as a updated birth certificate automatically.Officers were also required to refer known gay soldiers for a psychological evaluation to determine whether they posed any security risks or were mentally unfit for service, though commanders did sometimes disregard this policy.In 1998, the IDF ceased to link sexual orientation to security clearances and rescinded a standing order that required commanding officers to report gay soldiers for evaluation.[70] In December 2016, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit issued an instruction to Israel's Interior Ministry to consider applications for citizenship by same-sex and opposite-sex couples equally under the same terms.[78] In July 2019, interim Minister of Education Rafi Peretz attracted criticism after he endorsed the pseudoscientific practice and claimed to have personally performed such therapies.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Peretz's comments as unacceptable, saying they "do not represent [his] government's position" and that "[he] made it clear to him that the Israeli educational system will continue to accept all Jewish children whoever they are and without any difference based on sexual orientation.[81] Days later, Peretz backtracked from his comments, calling conversion therapy "inappropriate", but added that "individuals with a homosexual orientation have the right to receive professional help".[84][85][86][excessive citations] Several conversion therapy advocates and licensed professionals have moved to Israel from the United States, due to a growing number of bans on the pseudoscientific practice there.Officials from a number of parties, including Yael German of Yesh Atid, Limor Livnat of the ruling Likud-Beiteinu, and openly gay Nitzan Horowitz of Meretz, back same-sex marriage and have pledged support for LGBTQ causes.[106][107] In July 2019, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Evan Cohen, a linguist and LGBTQ rights activist, as the foreign media spokesperson.[118] On 23 February 2016, the Knesset marked the first LGBTQ rights day, but on 24 February 2016, the parties that form the governing coalition, Likud, United Torah Judaism, Shas, Kulanu, and the Jewish Home, supported by opposition members, defeated bills to recognize bereaved widowers, ban conversion therapy, recognize same-sex marriage, and train health professionals to deal with gender and sexual orientation issues.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Peretz's comments as unacceptable, saying that they "do not represent [his] government's position" and that "[he] made it clear to him that the Israeli educational system will continue to accept all Jewish children whoever they are and without any difference based on sexual orientation."[81] Days layer, Peretz backtracked from his comments, labelling conversion therapy "inappropriate", but added that "individuals with a homosexual orientation have the right to receive professional help".[133] In November 2006, more than two thousand members of the Haredi community jammed into streets in an Orthodox neighbourhood in a show of force aimed at pressuring authorities into cancelling the gay pride parade to be held in Jerusalem.A leading LGBTQ nonprofit called the move historic and Haaretz journalist Ilan Lior noted that it would even result in a major examination of issues such as the MSM blood transfusion restrictions.[147] In February 2019, in a report to President Reuven Rivlin by the LGBTQ association The Aguda – Israel's LGBT Task Force, it was revealed that in 2018 there had been a 54% increase in homophobic incidents compared to 2017.Jerusalem councilmembers Yossi Chavilov and Laura Warton called for the removal of Amar from his post as rabbi, as did openly gay politician Avi Buskila and Blue and White MK Eitan Ginzburg.[157] In July 2019, a 16-year-old teenager who lives in the Beit Dror LGBT center in Tel Aviv was stabbed several times and seriously wounded by his brother for refusing to adopt "a religious lifestyle".[162] Green Movement MK Stav Shaffir blamed members of the religious right for intolerance towards LGBTQ Israelis, to which Transport Minister Bezalel Smotrich (The Jewish Home) called her "stupid".[176] In the 1980s, the Tel Aviv weekly newspaper HaIr began to publish a chronicle about an Israeli gay man, known at the time as Moshe, who would later reveal himself to be Gal Uchovsky.It tells the story of a relationship that forms between Roy (Michael Aloni), an Israeli Jewish lawyer, and Nimer (Nicholas Jacob), a Palestinian psychology student from the West Bank.[184] The LGBTQ community in Israel was also brought to the media's attention following the winning of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998 by Dana International, an Israeli trans woman.Significant expatriate groups exist in Tel Aviv and Netanya, where many live with their Israeli same-sex partners who help keep their presence in Israel hidden from the police (who would pursue them not for their sexual orientation, but for staying illegally in the country).
IsraelStatusGender identityMilitaryMandatory Enlistment includes LGBTQ people serving openlyDiscrimination protectionsUnregistered cohabitation since 1994Same-sex marriages performed outside of Israel recognized since 2006, recognition of same-sex unions inside Tel-Aviv Yafo since 2020AdoptionMiddle Eastsodomyunregistered cohabitationsame-sex marriagesdoes not have civil non-religious marriagessexual orientationopenlyTel AvivCalgary HeraldPride paradeBenjamin NetanyahuShimon Peresgay victims of the Holocaustopinion pollChannel 10 Newssame-sex marriagePew Research CenterTel Aviv-Yafo MunicipalityLGBTQ history in IsraelBuggery Act 1533oral sexaggravating circumstancesAttorney General of IsraelIsraeli Supreme CourtKnessetage of consentUnregistered cohabitation in IsraelRecognition of same-sex unions in IsraelHerzliyaCivil marriagecitizenryAttorney GeneralMeni Mazuzmunicipal servicescivil unionMeretzcivil unionsHatnuahYesh AtidThe Zionist UnionRamat GanAdoption by same-sex couplesSupreme CourtHebrewArabicequal rightsisRealliUzi EvensurrogacyApple Inc.MicrosoftIsrair AirlinesHigh Court of JusticeInterior MinistryNeal HendelIsrael Supreme Courtbirth certificateTransgender rightsgender dysphoriapublic health insurance systemSheba Medical CenterTel HaShomerendocrinologisturologistplastic surgeonHealth Ministrysex reassignment surgerytransgenderhormone replacement therapyNational Identity CardsdeadnameSexual orientation and gender identity in the Israeli militaryMilitary Court of AppealsMilitary Advocate GeneralOpenly gaypride paradesIsrael Defense ForcestransitiontranssexualismintersexserviceLaw of ReturnAvichai Mandelblitemployment discriminationhate crimeProhibition of Discrimination in Products, Services and Entry into Places of Entertainment and Public Places Law, 2000Yael GermanEyal Ben-ReuvenIsrael Medical AssociationMinister of EducationRafi PeretzEhud BarakUnited Statesa growing number of banspseudoscientificcivil ceremony in GermanyNazarethinheritanceKiryat Shmonaemployee benefitsdeportAssociation for Civil Rights in IsraelUzi VogelmanWest BankHaaretzAriel SharonJerusalemLabor PartyShinuiTzipi LivniKadimaGreensGreen Leaf PartyLimor LivnatLikud-BeiteinuNitzan HorowitzHadash