Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Shlomo Amar said on Sunday it was “unbearable” that an openly gay man, Likud lawmaker Amir Ohana, was being named Knesset speaker and sharply criticized religious lawmakers who have backed his appointment.
All this business with abominations – today they are glorified. Out of shame. Such a shame,” Amar, a former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, said in widely released recordings of a recent lecture.
Woe to the ears that hear such things. It’s unbearable. They appoint them to roles considered high. They lost all their shame,” he said, without mentioning Ohana by name.
Amar, who repeatedly asked LGBTQ people, previously calling them wild animalsis the latest ultra-Orthodox rabbi to criticize Ohana’s appointment. On Saturday, Rabbi Meir Mazuz, an influential Haredi rabbi who has close ties to several senior officials in the new government, said Ohana was “infected with a disease” and insinuated that Meron’s deadly disaster of 2021 happened due to Ohana’s sexual orientation.
Ohana responded to Mazuz’s remarks Sunday night, saying he would rather “fail a hundred times out of unrequited love of Israel and fail it once out of baseless hatred of Israel.”
On Sunday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attacks on Ohana by Amar and Mazuz, 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].’ Each person is created in the image of God. It is the fundamental belief that was given to humanity thousands of years ago by our people, and it is the fundamental belief that guides us today,” the Prime Minister said.
Along with calling LGBTQ people “a disgrace,” Amar also condemned religious lawmakers who voted in favor of Ohana’s nomination.
Unfortunately, it seems that even people who are considered God-fearing are supported [the appointment]. It’s a huge shame – [that people who] represent Torah and Judaism…God have mercy,” Amar said.
Newly elected Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana prepares to deliver his first speech immediately after being elected by his fellow MKs, at the Knesset on December 29, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)
The Knesset elected Ohana as its president Thursday, shortly before the vote of confidence to inaugurate the 37th Israeli government. A former cabinet minister in previous governments, Ohana is the first openly gay person in the Knesset to serve as speaker.
The result of the plenary vote was 63 to 5, with all coalition lawmakers voting in favor — including members of the Haredi parties and the Religious Zionism party — except for MK Ya’akov Tessler, Ya ‘akov Tessler, who was abroad.
In his first remarks after his election, Ohana thanked his parents – who were in 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 in the gallery with the couple’s children, Ella and David, who Ohana also spoke about.
Ohana swore the new coalition would not infringe on LGBTQ rights.
“This Knesset, under this speaker, will not harm them or any other family, period,” he said in comments to his family.
Some ultra-Orthodox lawmakers looked away as he delivered his speech.
United Torah Judaism MKs Yitzhak Goldknopf and Meir Porush, respectively minister and deputy minister in the new government, averted their gaze as MK Amir Ohana, who is gay, delivers his first speech as Knesset Speaker, December 29 2022 (Screen grab from Images of Ari Kalman, Behadrei Haredim, aired on Channel 12; used pursuant to Section 27a of the Copyright Act)
Several of Likud’s far-right and ultra-Orthodox partners have expressed homophobic positions, including advocating for the return of currently banned conversion therapy, changing government forms to say “mother” and “father” instead of the gender-neutral “parent”, and run on the platform of a “normal family”.
The only lawmaker from the openly anti-LGBTQ Noam party, new deputy minister Avi Maoz, looked away as Ohama delivered his inaugural speech on Thursday, as did members of the United Torah Judaism party, despite voting for his nomination.
UTJ MK Yitzhak Pindrus left Ohana’s acceptance speech. On Sunday, he told broadcaster Kan he had “a 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 in light of the Likud MK’s sexual orientation.
“We are not happy with the path he is taking, but we are looking at the person and not his tendencies,” MP Yoav Ben-Tzur, who is a minister in the ministry of social affairs in the new government, told the site. Ynet news.
Carrie Keller-Lynn contributed to this report.
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