Israel’s Foreign Ministry waves LGBTQ Pride flag for first time

 Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll, who is gay, said that raising the rainbow flag is “important news domestically and abroad.”

“I remember myself as a 16-year-old boy, with worries about the future, and I hope that this moment reassures young men and women throughout Israel and the world and sends a message of tolerance and acceptance to all of Israeli society,” Roll said.

In response, Religious Zionist MK Itamar Ben-Gvir called the flag a “cheap provocation” that “insults religious sensitivities.”

“I don’t have a problem with LGBT people; we are all brothers,” Ben-Gvir said. “But at the same time, waving the flag doesn’t serve them. Rather, it hurts them and turns them into pawns in Lapid’s hands. The central problem is the extroversion and provocation to which Israeli children are exposed.”