page_title: 2018 Israeli LGBT's strike
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: 2018 Israeli LGBT's strike / Background
caption_attribution_description: עברית: הפגנה בכיכר רבין, 22 ביולי 2017
context_page_description: On July 22, 2018 Israeli LGBTs went on strike for the day to protest against the discrimination of the LGBT community on the Israeli Surrogacy Law, and the continuing violence towards the Israeli trans community. During the strike, that was held on the same day as the fast of Tisha B'Av, many organizations and companies allowed their employees to be absent to participate in the many protest events that were held throughout the day across the country, including Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba, Ra'anana and other cities.
  The strike was the first LGBT strike in history.
context_section_description: Following a Supreme Court case regarding the Israeli Surrogacy Law that was legislated in 1997, appealing to include gay couples in the law, the State's response to the court was that the law will be amended. To make the appropriate changes, the government formed several professional health committees, such as the Mor-Yosef committee, that passed along its recommendations to Minister of Health, Yael German. After the 34th government was formed, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, this issue was discussed in the Knesset's Labour, Welfare, and Health Committee headed by Eli Alaluf. In the proceedings to bring the bill to a second and third reading, the committee voted to add single women to the bill, while still excluding single men and gay couples from using surrogacy.
  The bill was brought to its second and third reading on July 18, 2018, with reservations, including one by Amir Ohana of the Likud Party, adding single men to the bill. Because of the stance declared by the ultra-orthodox factions in the coalition, headed by the United Torah Judaism, the coalition decided to oppose the reservation while supporting the original amendment.
  Prior to the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a video to his Facebook page, explaining that he will support a future amendment to the bill that will be brought by MK Ohana during the Knesset's Winter Session, to allow single men to use surrogacy in Israel, but despite his support, he voted against Ohana's reservation. The Knesset than passed the amended bill in its original form with 59 for and 52 against.
  Other pressing issues during that time were several lesbian couples who are fighting for the state's recognition of their joint parenthood, and in at least one case that went public, 2 women found out that they were unilaterally removed as the second parents from their children's birth certificates.
  Even before the vote, on July 14 and July 17, demonstrations against it were held in Tel Aviv and in Jerusalem. On July 19, protesters walked to the government office building in Tel Aviv.
  Around the same time, on July 17, a sex worker trans woman was stabbed in her apartment in south Tel Aviv.
caption: Protesters in the main rally in Rabin Square. The sign translates into "2nd class citizen". The literal translation of the sign is "type B citizen", with the "B" also being used in the Hebrew equivalent of the LGBT acronym.
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