Lgbtq laws in israel

Recent surveys in Israel contain revealed a mixed response towards LGBTQ+ rights and issues.

Survey results from 15 LGBTQ+ Equaldex users who lived in or visited Israel.

Perceived Safety*
Absence of verbal harassment
Absence of threats and violence
*Survey results represent personal perceptions of safety and may not be indicative of current actual conditions.

Equal Treatment
Treatment by general public
Treatment by law enforcement
Treatment by religious groups

Visibility & Representation
Representation in entertainment

Culture
Interest groups and clubs

Services
Support and social services

History

Homosexual activity in Israel

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Homosexual action in Israel is legal.

LGBT people regardless of gender are allowed to hire in such acts once old enough according to the law.

In 1953 the police was ordered to refrain from enforcing the law against lesbian acts by the Israeli government.

In 1963 Israel's Highest Court decides that individuals who committed consensual homosexual acts privately couldn't be punished and even before that there are no records of punishments by civilian courts against people who committed consensual homosexual

Israel Society & Culture: LGBT Rights in Israel

History
Expanding Legal Rights
Military Service
Legal Cases
Timeline of LGBTQ Rights
A Lgbtq+ Friendly Nation
Events and Incidents
More Progress Needed

History

On March 22, 1988, the Knesset repealed a British Mandate-era law banning sex between people of the same gender and thereby legalized homosexuality in Israel. The action followed a 10-year effort to overcome the opposition of the religious parties, all of which boycotted the vote.

In 1953, the Attorney General issued a directive ordering the police to refrain from enforcing the British Mandate-era law banning sex between consenting adults of the identical gender. A decade later, the Supreme Court ruled that the law should not be applied to acts between consenting adults in private. Israel never prosecuted anyone under the law against sodomy since the 1963 court decision; nevertheless, its maximum penalty of 10 years in prison created fear in the lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people. After a drawn-out battle to overcome the opposition of the religious parties, the Knesset repealed the law despite the religious members boycotting the vote

Timeline of LGBTQ rights in Israel

1963: Justice Haim Herman Cohn discourages the enforcement of British Mandate-era laws regarding consensual homosexual acts by denouncing the laws as “outdated.” Cohn was author of The Methodology of the Talmudic Commandment (1933) and was Israel’s representative to the UN Human Rights Council (1955-1957 & 1965-1967).

1968: Tel Aviv’s first gay bar opens in a private apartment, the harbinger of other gay clubs to follow.

1975: Israel’s first organization for the protection of LGBT rights is founded.

1979: Israel’s first Gay Pride event is a protest in today’s Rabin Square.

1986: Sex reassignment surgery is permitted and recognized.

1988: Same-sex sexual relations between consenting adults are decriminalized under Amendment 22 of Israeli Penal Code.

1992: Discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation becomes illegal.

1992: Stepchild adoption and limited co-guardianship rights are introduced for non-biological parents.

1993: Male lover, lesbian and bisexual Israelis can serve openly and equally in the IDF.

1993: First Pride Parade takes place in Tel Aviv,

1994: Unregistered cohabitation is legalized.

1998: A trans woman,

‘No pride in occupation’: queer Palestinians on ‘pink-washing’ in Gaza conflict

When Daoud, a veteran queer activist, recently walked past rainbow flags hung for Pride month in the aged port city of Jaffa, a historic centre of Palestinian culture, he was overcome by a wave of revulsion.

The most famous symbol of LGBTQ+ liberation has been so co-opted by the Israeli state that to a lgbtq+ Palestinian like him it now serves only as a reminder of the horror unfolding just 60 miles south.

Last November, Israel’s government posted two images from Gaza on its social media account. One shows Israeli soldier Yoav Atzmoni, in battle fatigues, in front of buildings reduced to rubble by Israeli airstrikes. He holds a rainbow flag with a hand-scrawled message: “In the name of love”.

In the second he poses beside a tank, grinning as he displays an Israeli flag with rainbow borders. “The first ever Pride flag raised in Gaza,” the caption for both images reads.

At the time, Israeli attacks had killed more than 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 4,000 children, according to Gazan health ministry figures. The toll has now risen to over 37,000, and more than a million people are on

Compare LGBT Rights in Israel & Palestine

Equality Index?

64 / 100

19 / 100

Legal Index ?

76 / 100

29 / 100

Public Opinion Index ?

51 / 100

8 / 100

Homosexual activityLegal
Since 1963Varies by RegionSame-sex marriageCivil unions (marriage rights)
Since 2022UnrecognizedCensorship of LGBT issuesNo censorshipVaries by RegionRight to change legal genderLegal, but requires medical diagnosis
Since 2014IllegalGender-affirming careLegalRestrictedLegal recognition of neutrois genderNot legally recognizedNot legally recognizedLGBT discriminationIllegal in some contexts
Since 1992Illegal in some contextsLGBT employment discriminationSexual orientation and gender identity
Since 2015No protectionsLGBT housing discriminationNo protectionsNo protectionsSame-sex adoptionLegal
Since 2023Single onlyIntersex infant surgeryNot bannedNot bannedServing openly in militaryLegal
Since 1992N/ABlood donations by MSMsLegal
Since 2021LegalConversion therapyBanned
Since 2022Not bannedEqual age of consentEq
lgbtq laws in israel