It is often referred to as the LGBTQ capital of the Middle East for its sizable population of people who identify as a part of the LGBTQ community, and it has a reputation for hosting the arguably largest annual Pride celebration and festivities.

This year was no exception as Israeli officials estimate a crowd of nearly 170,000 was in attendance.

According to i24NEWS, an Israeli-based international 24-hour news and current affairs television channel located in Tel Aviv, the seaside city has a population of nearly 100,000 who identify themselves as LGBTQ and the city has hosted Pride for 23 years.

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and Israeli Social Equality Minister Meirav Cohen kicked off the festivities.

“We have a majority here in Israel that supports this community,” said Huldai. “Tel Aviv has always been home for every transgender person, and every lesbian and gay person, and the home of anyone who wants to be who they are.”

The Associated Press reported some 250,000 people attended the Tel Aviv Pride parade in 2019, before it was called off the following year because of the pandemic. In 2021, an estimated 100,000 people attended.

Pride parades all over Israel are held under heavy police presence, particularly since 2015 when an ultra-Orthodox extremist stabbed to death 16-year-old Shira Banki during the Pride parade in Jerusalem.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides attended the march with a delegation from the U.S. embassy. “This is about tolerance and decency and respect, and being here with all the folks from the embassy is unbelievably meaningful to me,” he told The Associated Press.

Tel Aviv Celebrates Pride With Thousands In Attendance:

The government of Kuwait on Thursday said it summoned a senior American diplomat after the U.S. Embassy tweeted its support of LGBTQ rights.

A Kuwaiti Foreign Affairs Ministry statement notes Nawaf Abdul Latif Al-Ahmad, the country’s acting assistant secretary of state for Americas affairs, met with Jim Hollisteder, the acting chargé d’affaires for the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait City, “against the background of the embassy’s publication on its social media accounts of references and tweets supporting homosexuality.”

The embassy on Thursday in tweets that it posted to its Twitter account in English and Arabic noted President Biden is “a champion for the human rights of LGBTQI persons.”

“All human beings should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear no matter who they are or whom they live,” said the tweets.

“All human beings should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear no matter who they are or whom they love.” @POTUS is a champion for the human rights of #LGBTQI persons. #Pride2022 #YouAreIncluded pic.twitter.com/gdPPBDlHZH

— U.S. Embassy Kuwait (@USEmbassyQ8) June 2, 2022

دفاعاً عن حقوق الإنسان لأفراد مجتمع الميم، قال الرئيس بايدن: “يستحق كلّ الناس الاحترام والكرامة والقدرة على العيش دون خوف بغض النظر عمن هم أو من يحبون.” pic.twitter.com/YptuptZJE6

— U.S. Embassy Kuwait (@USEmbassyQ8) June 2, 2022

The Kuwaiti Foreign Affairs Ministry in its statement notes Al-Ahmad “handed” Hollisteder “a memorandum confirming Kuwait’s rejection of what was published and stressing the need for the embassy to respect the laws and regulations in force in the state of Kuwait and the obligation not to publish such tweets in compliance with what was stipulated in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.”

Kuwait is a U.S. ally that borders Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. It is one of the upwards of 70 countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price, who is openly gay, on Friday retweeted the embassy’s tweet.

“The United States stands with the LGBTQI+ community everywhere around the world,” said Price.

The United States stands with the LGBTQI+ community everywhere around the world. https://t.co/k4t8fTDzYs

— Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) June 3, 2022

Israeli police on Wednesday arrested a man in connection with death threats made against organizers of Jerusalem’s Pride parade.

The Times of Israel reported the 21-year-old man allegedly sent a message to Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance Community Director Emuna Klein Barnoy and two Israeli lawmakers in which he described Jerusalem as “the Holy City” and said “we will not allow the Pride parade to take place in Jerusalem.”

The threat also referenced Shira Banki, the 16-year-old teenager who was stabbed to death during a Jerusalem Pride march in 2015.

An ultra-Orthodox man who stabbed Banki and five others during the march had just been released from prison after serving a 10-year sentence in connection with the stabbing of three people during a Jerusalem Pride march in 2005. The man is currently serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison.

Israeli media reports note the threat that Barnoy and the two lawmakers received on Wednesday came from an Instagram account that included the name of the man who killed Banki.

The Jerusalem Pride parade will take place on Thursday with more than 2,400 police officers deployed along the route. The Times of Israel reported the man who allegedly threatened organizers was expected to have appeared in a Jerusalem court on the same day.