TEL AVIV – A majority of the Israeli public across the political spectrum were in support of the recent protests against legislation denying surrogacy rights for gay couples, a recent poll by Channel 2 news found.
More than half, 56%, of respondents said they supported the LGBTQ protests and 33% opposed them. Surprisingly, 58% of Jewish Home voters and 51% of Likud voters were in support.
Zionist Union voters came in at 87% support, Yesh Atid at 89% and Meretz at 82%.
On Sunday night approximately 100,000 people in support of LGBTQ rights attended a protest in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square to protest the law, which eased surrogacy regulations for single women, but does not enable gay couples or single men to have a child through surrogacy.
The majority of voters for ultra-Orthodox and Arab parties opposed the LGBTQ campaign, but not as vociferously as might be expected. 90% of United Torah Judaism and 78% of Shas voters were opposed. Only 45% of voters for the Joint (Arab) List said they were against the protests while a third were either neutral or did not know. 23% said they supported the protests.
The poll also queried respondents on their attitudes towards government policy on the problem of incendiary kites and balloons launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip. These have sparked numerous fires and caused a tremendous amount of damage to fields in the surrounding Israeli communities.
Sunday also saw a nationwide strike by LGBTQ members of the workforce.