Israelis go to the polls on Tuesday, October 27 to elect all 120 members of the Knesset. For LGBTQ+ Israelis, the result could decide whether recognition for same-sex couples finally moves forward, or whether the bills that stalled over the last four years come back.

Here’s what the parties are promising, what the outgoing government did, and what’s genuinely at stake.

The basics

  • Date: October 27, 2026. All 120 seats are up, and a government needs 61 to govern, according to Wikipedia’s election overview. The threshold to enter the Knesset is 3.25%.
  • Polls: As of this week, Haaretz reports that neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc nor the opposition parties reach a majority in new polls.
  • The current law: Same-sex marriage is prohibited in Israel. Marriage is regulated by the Rabbinate, and many couples marry abroad and then petition to have those marriages recognised, JTA explains.

Who’s promising what

On October 22, The Times of Israel reported that three parties are running with explicit LGBTQ+ platforms, and all three pledge to enshrine LGBTQ equality in law and advance legal recognition for same-sex couples:

  • The Democrats (led by Yair Golan). Golan pledged to write full equality into law, restore tolerance and equality in the education system, create a national program against LGBTQ-phobia, and set up a national authority for LGBTQ rights with a budget of NIS 100 million a year. The platform also promises civil marriage, which doesn’t currently exist in Israel. Golan accused the government of encouraging what the paper describes as an ongoing wave of violence against the community: “The violence that the LGBTQ community experiences on the streets is encouraged by the government,” he said.
  • B’Yachad (Naftali Bennett’s list, running jointly with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid). This one is a real shift. Bennett historically opposed same-sex marriage, but at an April 26 press conference he said a government under his leadership would advance it, JTA reports. At Jerusalem Pride in June, Lapid promised that “in the first 100 days of the next government, we will bring legislation” on equal rights for couples.
  • Yashar (Gadi Eisenkot’s party).

Likud has no explicit LGBTQ policy, according to The Times of Israel, even though Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who is openly gay, holds the third spot on its list.

Netanyahu’s outgoing coalition relies on ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties that, the paper notes, have vocally opposed LGBTQ rights. That includes Noam, Avi Maoz’s party, whose stated aim is to advance policies against LGBT rights, per its Wikipedia entry.

The outgoing government’s record, by the numbers

The Aguda, Israel’s national LGBTQ equality group, published a report ahead of the vote on the government’s record since December 2022. Ynetnews summarised it:

  • Money: The LGBTQ Advancement Division’s 2024 budget fell from a planned 38 million shekels to about 24 million, a cut of roughly 37%. A program funding local LGBTQ activities dropped from 21 million to 10 million shekels.
  • Services lost: In July 2025, the Ministry of Social Equality ended its agreement with the Aguda, which had served LGBTQ people in Arab communities, adults over 50 and LGBTQ people with disabilities.
  • Bills that stalled, for now: a coalition plan to let businesses refuse service on religious grounds (shelved after public opposition), a bill to base sex markers on documents on biological criteria only, and a proposal to bar discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in grades 1–8.
  • Equality bills that failed: a conversion therapy ban for minors, a housing discrimination ban, civil marriage, and hate-crime victim compensation.

It wasn’t all losses. The Aguda’s report lists two wins: same-sex partners are now recognised under benefit laws for families of fallen soldiers and of hostages and missing persons, and sexual orientation and gender identity were added to Israel’s Student Rights Law.

Representation is thin, too: only three of the 120 members of the outgoing Knesset openly identify as LGBTQ, and the government had no openly LGBTQ ministers, the report says.

“This report documents the choices politicians made regarding the LGBTQ community,” Aguda chair Nimrod Gornstein said. The group warns that stalled proposals could return in the next Knesset.

Why it matters beyond Israel

Same-sex couples in Israel still can’t marry at home. If a coalition that includes the three pro-equality lists forms, legal recognition for same-sex couples would be on the table in a way it hasn’t been before. If the outgoing coalition returns, the Aguda expects the shelved bills on trans IDs and school lessons to resurface.

In June, thousands marched at Jerusalem Pride along a route that ended near the Knesset, a choice organisers made with this vote in mind. Jerusalem Open House chair Hadas Bloemendal told JTA she was supposed to be on maternity leave: “But this year, I had to be here.”

We’ll report the results, and what the coalition talks mean for LGBTQ+ rights, once the votes are counted.

Sources