HUMAN RIGHTS VS RELIGIOUS RITES

Israeli rabbi calls gay Knesset speaker Amir Ohana 'diseased'

A rabbi in Israel with a history of inflammatory and controversial remarks has said the new speaker of the Knesset was 'infected' because he was from the LGBTQ+ community.

Ohana, who has held ministerial positions before, is Israel's first openly gay Knesset speaker [Getty]


The New Arab Staff
02 January, 2023

A rabbi in Israel reportedly said the newly appointed speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana, was "infected with a disease" because of his sexuality.

Rabbi Meir Mazuz, the rabbinic leader of Tunisian Jews in Israel, made the comments about Ohana – a staunch supporter of new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the first openly gay speaker of the Knesset – during an online lecture on Saturday, according to Israeli media.

Mazuz, who has a long history of making inflammatory remarks about the LGBTQ+ community, said during his sermon that the annual Pride Parade in Israel was a parade of "beasts walking upright."

"There is a time when everyone will be asked: Are you part of the Pride Parade or part of the humility parade?" he told students during his weekly sermon, according to Times of Israel.

"You should distance yourself from it. You see people walking and bragging [about] the Pride Parade in Jerusalem," he said, continuing: "Close the windows and tell your children: 'This is a parade of animals, you have no business looking at it. These are animals walking on two legs. What can we do about them?'"

He even hinted that Ohana was responsible for a stampede in 2021 in Israel’s Mount Meron that killed 45 ultra-Orthodox Jews, as the current speaker was public security minister at the time.

Ohana has also held the position of justice minister before. He and his partner, Alon Haddad, have two children together.

He responded to Mazuz’s remarks on Sunday, saying he would rather "fail a hundred times with unrequited love of Israel than to do so once from baseless hatred of Israel."

Netanyahu now heads a government that includes ultra-nationalist religious parties, and what is believed to be the most hard-right cabinet Israel has ever had. Many of its members have a history of making racist remarks towards Palestinians and Arabs.

Some cabinet members are openly opposed to Israel’s LGBTQ+ community, but Netanyahu has said his new government will uphold their rights.

The new cabinet has raised concerns among Palestinians who fear further violence and oppression under the new government.