Jerusalem’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar said on Sunday it was “intolerable” that an openly gay man, Likud MP Amir Ohana, was appointed Speaker of the Knesset and slammed the religious parliamentarians who backed his appointment .
“This whole abomination thing – today they are glorified. To shame. Such a shame,” said Amar, a former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, in widely circulated transcripts of a recent lecture.
“Woe to the ears that hear of such things. It’s unbearable. They appoint them to roles that are considered exalted. They’ve lost all their shame,” he said, without mentioning Ohana by name.
Amar, who has repeatedly attacked LGBTQ people and previously called them “wild animals,” is the latest ultra-Orthodox rabbi to criticize Ohana’s appointment. On Saturday, Rabbi Meir Mazuz, an influential Haredi rabbi with close ties to several senior members of the new government, said Ohana was “infected with a disease” and insinuated that the deadly 2021 Meron disaster was due to Ohana’s sexual orientation.
Responding to Mazuz’ comments Sunday night, Ohana said he would rather “fail a hundred times with unrequited love for Israel and fail once with baseless hatred of Israel.”
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On Sunday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the Amar and Mazuz attacks on Ohana, citing a passage from The Ethics of Our Fathers (Pirkei Avot), a compilation of rabbinic ethical teachings.
“‘Beloved is man, for he was created in the image [of God].’ Every human being is created in God’s image. This is the basic belief that was instilled in humanity thousands of years ago by our people and it is the basic belief that guides us today,” said the Prime Minister.
In addition to calling LGBTQ people “a disgrace,” Amar condemned the religious lawmakers who voted for Ohana’s appointment.
“Unfortunately, it seems that even people who are considered godly are being supported [the appointment]. This is a great shame – [that people who] represent Torah and Judaism…God have mercy,” said Amar.
The newly elected Speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana, is preparing to deliver his first speech in the Knesset immediately after his election by other MKs on December 29, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)
The Knesset elected Ohana as its speaker on Thursday, shortly before the confidence vote to inaugurate Israel’s 37th government. A former minister in previous governments, Ohana is the first openly gay person in the Knesset to hold the post of Speaker.
The result of the plenary vote was 63-5, with all coalition MPs voting in favor – including members of the Haredi parties and the Religious Zionism party – with the exception of United Torah Judaism MK Ya’akov Tessler, who was abroad.
In his first remarks after his election, Ohana thanked his parents — who were at the gallery — for accepting him “for who I am.” And he thanked his partner Alon Haddad, “the second half of my life for almost 18 years,” who was at the gallery with the couple’s children, Ella and David, who Ohana also mentioned.
Ohana vowed that the new coalition would not violate LGBTQ rights.
“This Knesset, headed by this speaker, will not harm you or any other family, period,” he said in comments addressed to his family.
Some ultra-Orthodox MKs averted their eyes as he delivered his speech.
United Torah Judaism MKs Yitzhak Goldknopf and Meir Porush, a minister and deputy minister respectively in the new government, avert their gaze as gay MK Amir Ohana am 29 Footage by Ari Kalman, Behadrei Haredim broadcast on Channel 12 ; used pursuant to Clause 27a of the Copyright Act)
Several of the Likud’s far-right and ultra-Orthodox partners have expressed homophobic positions, including advocating the return of currently banned conversion therapy, changing forms of government to say “mother” and “father” instead of the gender-neutral “parent,” and running for office on the Platform of a “normal family”.
The only MP from the openly anti-LGBTQ Noam party, new deputy minister Avi Maoz, looked the other way as Ohama delivered his inaugural address on Thursday, as did members of the United Torah Judaism Party, despite voting in favor of his appointment.
UTJ’s MK Yitzhak Pindrus left Ohana’s acceptance speech. On Sunday, he told the Kan broadcaster it was his “right to feel uncomfortable when Amir Ohana talks about his family.”
A member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, despite voting for Ohana, expressed reservations about Likud MK’s sexual orientation.
“We are not happy with the path he is taking, but we are looking at the person and not at his inclinations,” MK Yoav Ben-Tzur, minister at the new government’s welfare ministry, told news site Ynet.
Carrie Keller-Lynn contributed to this report.
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