Thousands of people on Thursday marched in Jerusalem's Pride Parade – an annual event that took place for the first time under Israel's new far-right government.
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The march in the conservative city is always tense and tightly secured by police, and has been wracked by violence in the past. But this year, Israel finds itself deeply riven over a contentious government plan to reform the judiciary. The plan has torn open longstanding societal divisions between those who want to preserve Israel's liberal values and those who seek to shift it toward more religious conservatism.
Video: Yoni Rikner
Jerusalem's march is typically more subdued than the one in gay-friendly Tel Aviv, where tens of thousands of revelers pour into the streets for a massive, multicolored party. But Thursday's parade, amid tight security, drew bigger crowds than usual in a show of force against the government and its plan to reshape the legal system.
"There isn't one struggle in Israel for democracy, and another one for LGBTQ+ rights," Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said in a speech to the crowd. "It's the same struggle, against the same enemies, in the name of the same values."
Other opposition politicians and the US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides joined Thursday's march. "I don't find this controversial one way or the other," Nides said. "This is about the rights and human rights, and this is what brings America and Israel together."
People carried a flag that read: "There is no pride without democracy."
Like other years, a small group of anti-LGBTQ+ activists attended Thursday's parade. At the parade in 2015, an ultra-Orthodox Israeli man stabbed 16-year-old Shira Banki to death and wounded several others.
Israel is generally tolerant toward the LGBTQ+ community, a rarity in the conservative Middle East, where homosexuality is widely considered taboo and is outlawed in some places. Members of the LGBTQ+ community serve openly in Israel's military and parliament, and many popular artists and entertainers are openly gay.
Yet activists say there is a long road toward full equality. Jewish ultra-Orthodox parties, which wield significant influence over matters of religion and state, oppose homosexuality as a violation of religious law, as do other religious groups in Israel.
Protests have continued even though the government and Opposition are in talks to find a compromise on the plan and demonstrators are expected to show up in Jerusalem to lend their support to the community.
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