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TEL AVIV, Israel — Tens of thousands of Israeli LGBTQ advocates and their supporters went on strike across the country Sunday, protesting the exclusion of gay men from a recently passed surrogacy law.

The community is outraged that after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to pass legislation supporting surrogacy for gay fathers, he then voted against it, apparently under pressure from his ultra-Orthodox Jewish coalition partners.

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Protesters marched in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities on Sunday, waving rainbow flags and briefly blocking a major highway.

Tel Aviv’s central Rabin Square was packed with tens of thousands of people for the main demonstration Sunday night. “Although Israel has a very liberal image concerning gays it’s not the case when you look at the Israeli law,” said former Israeli lawmaker Nitzan Horowitz at the protest, who called for law amendments to ensure equal treatment for the LGBTQ community.