Protesters march for same-sex surrogacy
TEL AVIV: Waving rainbow flags and pushing strollers, tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing, religious coalition on Sunday after it blocked an effort to extend surrogacy rights to samesex couples.
“This is the 21st century,” said Itzik Shmuli, a gay lawmaker from the Zionist Union party. “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 because of their orientation.”
“Mr Netanyahu has sold the most important thing in our society to an extremist minority in his government for extraneous political interests: the value of equality,” he said.
In a law enacted last week, the government extended surrogacy rights to single women, but rejected an amendment that would have included same-sex couples and allowed gay men to father children through surrogates.
Support for gay rights is increasingly widespread in Israel, but the ultra-Orthodox, who wield significant influence in Mr Netanyahu’s government, oppose any legislation condoning homosexuality, which they see as flouting Jewish law.
Although Mr Netanyahu had endorsed surrogacy for same-sex couples on July 16, he reversed himself Wednesday after ultra-Orthodox members of his coalition objected.
The defeat enraged Israel’s vocal gay community. Gay Israelis say they feel treated like full-fledged citizens when it comes to paying taxes and serving in the military — and appreciated for making Tel Aviv a gay tourist mecca — but shunned when it comes to marriage and parental rights.
Israeli men who wish to father children through surrogates must now do so out of the country, and say they often wind up spending upward of US$100,000 (3.3 million baht) in the process.
Gay-rights groups called a daylong strike on Sunday, the start of Israel’s workweek, and scores of companies and institutions, including the national labor movement, encouraged workers to participate.
Throughout the day, protesters stopped traffic in Beersheva in the south, and Haifa and Afula in the north, and scuffled with the police near Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem.
The roads leading into central Tel Aviv were jammed late on Sunday with people making their way to Rabin Square, the scene of some of Israel’s biggest mass demonstrations. The facade of City Hall was bathed in light, by turns showing the Star of David and the colors of the rainbow.
As many as 60,000 people, according to local media reports, filled the plaza below, chanting “Homophobia is terror,” “Shame, shame” and “The people demand legislative justice.” Many held printed placards that said “We are family,” while others had made their own — like one saying, “Maybe the day will come when we’ll all be equal”.
Mr Netanyahu also came under attack on Sunday over other legislation enacted last week, just before the Knesset, or parliament, broke for its summer recess.
These measures included laws granting Jews the exclusive right to national selfdetermination and downgrading the status of the Arabic language, restricting access to Israel’s Supreme Court for Palestinians living on the West Bank and allowing some advocacy groups to be barred from speaking in public schools.
“It was another thing, and then another straw, and that was it — I couldn’t take it any longer,” said Zohar Lobel, 44, who came to the protests with her three children, ages 8 to 13, and her parents, Yonatan and Malka Lerner. “I believe in democracy and equal rights.”
Eran Hagai-Neuberg, 42, attended with his husband, Nir, and their two twin 6-yearolds who were born to different surrogate mothers in India. “We came to support others who want to establish a family, but can’t because a religious minister tells us that we’re not allowed to,” he said.
Ido Greenberg, 35, who runs a T-shirt company that prints political slogans in Hebrew font, said he wanted to share “how important civil rights are”.