Newly appointed Justice Minister Ofir Ohana, Israel's first openly gay cabinet minister, also took part.
ADVERTISEMENTMore than 10,000 people marched in the 19th annual Jerusalem gay pride parade on Thursday, celebrating in the holy city where some communities have in the past shown little tolerance to LGBT people and their supporters.
Parade participants danced in the streets waving flags, carrying balloons and holding banners. Newly-appointed Justice Minister Ofir Ohana, Israel's first openly-gay cabinet minister, also took part.
The event, held in Jerusalem since 2001, has long been a source of tension between Israel's predominantly secular majority and the ultra-Orthodox Jewish minority who object to public displays of homosexuality. In one area along the route a small group of far-right activists staged a protest against the event with banners reading: "It's not pride, its an abomination."
Some 2,500 police officers were deployed across the parade route to secure the march, a police spokesperson said.