Hate crimes against the LGBTQ community in Israel rose by 10% in 2021, a new report from The Aguda – The Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel published Wednesday reveals.

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According to the report, a homophobic hate crime was reported to the Aguda's hate crime incident center every three hours last year.

The report also pointed to a worrying increase in anti-LGBTQ sentiment in families, with 43% of homophobic incidents reported involving family members, compared to 28% in 2020. The number of reported cases of LGBTQ youth rejected by their families in 2021 jumped by 41% compared to 2020. In 2021, 444 young people were kicked out of their parents' households because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

According to the report, cisgender male homosexuals reported the most attacks by family members.

Over one-third of reported homophobic hate crimes in 2021 involved incidents against transsexuals, nearly twice the amount reported against transsexuals in 2020.

The report also indicated that 29% of reported transphobic incidents occurred in the healthcare system, whereas 12% of reported transphobic incidents occurred in families. Approximately 9% of reported transphobic incidents took place in the school and university systems.

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"Wonder Woman" star Gal Gadot is once again under attack – this time by her compatriots, for an Instagram post she put up on Friday, June 25, supporting the annual Gay Pride parade in Tel Aviv.

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Gadot posted a picture of the colorful event, which drew tens of thousands of participants, and captioned it, "My beloved Tel Aviv celebrated Pride 2021 in a colorful parade today! It's an amazing reminder to us all that love is the most powerful force in the world, it can overcome all obstacles and change the world!"

Many social media users were pleased and proud to see her post but others objected, some because of anti-LGBTQ prejudice and others on political grounds having to do with their understanding, or lack thereof, of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Gadot's outspoken support for Israel.

One user who did not mince words about Gadot's pro-Pride post was rapper Yoav Eliasi, known as the Shadow. On Saturday, he posted an outraged response in which he said, "The most famous Israeli woman in the world, Gal Gadot, who was silent while her country was under rocket fire, lynches, and pogroms, and put up a pathetic, neutral and petty post while her friends in Hollywood were beating up on Israel with lies and blood libels, suddenly responds to the Gay Pride Parade in a big way and puts up a Pride flag and talks about her 'beloved Tel Aviv.'"

Elias went on to muse, "How did they choose a coward to play Wonder Woman?" and wrote "Let's see you, Ms. Gadot, put up an Israeli flag and talk about liberal Israel, which accepts the other with senior government ministers from the [LGBTQ] community while its neighbors in the Middle East still whip, murder, and arrest members of the community. Come on, let's see you, Ms. Wonder Woman!"

Elias posted a collection of screenshots by other Israeli users who objected to what they saw as Gadot's lack of public support during last month's Operation Guardian of the Walls against Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

"This is a tiny part of the responses," the Shadow wrote, calling Gadot "hypocritical."

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"Homosexuals are my brothers, but I'm against walking around in the streets in underwear," MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, chairman of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said in an interview on the Ofira and Berkovic talk show on Channel 12 that was broadcast Friday evening.

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Tens of thousands of people participated in the Gay Pride march in Tel Aviv on Friday.

When co-host Ofira Asayag took out a rainbow pride flag during the interview and asked Ben-Gvir if he would wish the marchers a happy holiday, he responded: "I won't say happy holiday."

"Today is not a holiday. But I'll surprise you," Ben-Gvir added. "The homosexuals are my brothers and the lesbians are my sisters. I've always said that but I'm against walking around in the streets in underwear and I'm against being coerced."

Pressed on by Asayag, who asked what he would do if his son came out of the closet, Ben-Gvir said: "I'll give him a hug. He's my son. After telling [him] that, I'll ask him not to march in pride parades and be provocative."

"I'm extreme in my love for Israel," Ben-Gvir replied after Asayag accused him of being a racist provocateur and agitator. "I'm an elected official. My job is not to sit in the Knesset and eat [snacks]."

"You are a member of Knesset. You're not a hilltop youth anymore," co-host Eyal Berkovic said, using a term used to describe extreme right-wing settlers who are teenagers. "You can't behave like a punk," he added.

"This is a Jewish state. I'm against coercion. I fight enemies. Our country is ending," Ben-Gvir answered.

He went on to say: "I don't incite against Arabs. I have no problem with Arabs. Anyone who lives with us in peace, ahlan wa sahlan ("welcome" in Arabic). Whoever is loyal [to the country], I'm with him. Anyone who isn't loyal should get out of here. Anyone who comes out against the State of Israel needs to leave. I'd also put [Meretz MK] Ofer Cassif on a plane out of here."

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Israel's biggest Gay Pride event was slated to kick off at noon Friday, after being cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.

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Police expected the event to draw the country's biggest crowds since the start of the pandemic, with tens of thousands of revelers and supporters expected to flock to Tel Aviv for the party.

The parade is scheduled to set out at 12 p.m. from Shalag St. at the corner of Herbert Samuel and move toward Charles Clore park at the southern end of the Tel Aviv promenade, for a total distance of 1.7 km. (1.05 miles).

The gay pride parade was scheduled to coincide with a government decision to reinstate masks indoors, but security forces were more concerned about other safety risks to participants, and nearly 1,500 police personnel, as well as MDA paramedics and firefighters, were deployed all along the route of the march.

Sadly, the concerns about participants' safety were not empty.

Detectives from the Tel Aviv District Police arrested on Friday a man carrying various weapons, including an electric taser, nunchuks, and chains. The man, a resident of Tel Aviv in his 30s, had been under surveillance. He was arrested and his weapons confiscated. Later Friday, the man was due to appear at the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court for a remand hearing.

Police have asked the public to keep their eyes open about potential threats and call the 100 hotline to report any suspicious activity.

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Members of the group, which is called the National Socialist Movement, came with weapons and performed Nazi salutes. They also wore Nazi-like uniforms.

According to Fox News, the group is "one of the largest neo-Nazi organizations in the United States and is known for theatrical and provocative protests."

Footage from the event shows the members tearing apart the rainbow flag and another urinating on an Israeli flag.

The Motor City Pride Parade had an estimated 40,000 attendees. According to organizers, it is the largest Pride Month event in Michigan.

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Some 10,000 revelers waving rainbow flags joined the carnival-like procession, as over 2,500 police officers in plain clothes, in uniform and on horseback patrolled the crowd.

"Homosexuals, lesbians, transgenders. Jerusalem is mine too," marchers chanted.

The gay community's visibility in conservative Jerusalem tends to draw vocal protest from members of the city's substantial Orthodox population. Many ultra-Orthodox Jews reject the public display of homosexuality as an "abomination" that desecrates the biblical city and flouts Jewish law.

Police said they arrested 52 suspects who planned to disrupt the event, including a man carrying a knife near the parade route. Counter-protesters jeered through megaphones and carried signs saying "Jerusalem is not Sodom" and "Keep the Holy Land holy." Police confined their demonstration to a penned-off park far from the procession.

Ahead of the event, the city said it had taken down a series of homophobic banners that had recently appeared on Jerusalem billboards.

The parade passed peacefully this year but has ended violently before: In 2015, an ultra-Orthodox extremist stabbed a 16-year-old girl to death and wounded several others. The assailant struck shortly after completing a 10-year prison sentence for stabbing participants at the 2005 march.

Jerusalem's tense march contrasts with the more free-wheeling one staged every year in Tel Aviv, a secular coastal city celebrated for its gay-friendly lifestyle, set to draw hundreds of thousands of tourists for the occasion next week.

Support for gay rights is increasingly widespread in Israel, where gay people serve openly in the military and parliament. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Amir Ohana, the country's first openly gay cabinet minister, from his right-wing Likud party. Ohana stopped by the parade and was met with boos from the liberal crowd.

Wrapped in a string of rainbow flags, Meitav Aaron, an American gay student who grew up religious, said he wore a Jewish skullcap to the parade "to show that there are religious Jews who are also believing in this cause ... that Judaism means as much to me as to the Orthodox guy that might be protesting this entire event."

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Tuesday's event involved an unofficial wedding ceremony for 23 same-sex couples, who walked down the aisle, took vows and danced at a banquet, cheered by friends, family and supporters.

The annual pride parade, set for June 14, draws flocks of foreign visitors to Israel, which flaunts itself as one of the world's most gay-friendly tourist destinations.

Yet political rights for Israel's gay community lag behind increasingly widespread cultural acceptance.

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