Ilan Ben Zion
AP / December 25, 2022
JERUSALEM (AP) — Designated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a rare rebuke of his new coalition allies on Sunday for saying they would advance laws allowing discrimination against LGBTQ people, pledging there would be no harm to their rights by his upcoming government.
Netanyahu is set to form the most ultranationalist and religious government in Israel’s history between his Likud movement and several openly anti-LGBTQ parties. This has raised fears among Israel’s LGBTQ community that the new government, expected to take office in the coming week, will roll back gains they have made in recent years.
Orit Struck, a Religious Zionist member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, said her party seeks a change to the country’s anti-discrimination law that would include permitting people to avoid acts that go against their religious beliefs — including discriminating against LGBTQ people in hospitals.
Struck said in an interview on Sunday with Kan public radio that “so long as there are enough other doctors to provide care,” religious healthcare providers should be able refuse to treat LGBTQ patients.
Simcha Rotman, another member of the party, said that private business owners, such as hotel operators, should be allowed to refuse service to LGBTQ “if it harms their religious feelings.”
Netanyahu issued a pair of statements repudiating Struck’s comments.
Netanyahu said that Struck’s remarks “are unacceptable to me and to members of Likud,” and that the coalition agreement “does not allow discrimination against LGBTQ or harming their right to receive services like all other Israeli citizens.”
As the controversy continued to rage, he later issued a second videotaped statement saying he “completely rejects” Struck’s remarks.
“In the country that I will lead, there will be no situation where a person, whether he is LGBT, Arab or ultra-Orthodox or any other person, will enter a hotel and not receive service, enter a doctor and not receive service,” he said.
The controversy came days after the Yediot Ahronot daily reported that another member of the Religious Zionism alliance, the far-right Noam faction, once compiled a list of LGBTQ journalists and claimed the “LGBT media” amounted to a lobby of “incomparable strength.”
Sunday’s uproar prompted Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, to express his own concerns. The president is a largely figurehead position who is meant to serve as a moral compass and unifying force for the country.
“A situation in which Israeli citizens feel threatened due to their identity or faith undermines the basic democratic and moral values of the State of Israel,” Herzog said. “The racist statements heard in recent days against the LGBT community and in general against different sectors and publics – worry and disturb me a lot.”
It was the latest sign of trouble for Netanyahu’s emerging coalition, which is dominated by far-right and ultra-Orthodox partners pushing for dramatic changes that could alienate large swaths of the Israeli public, raise the risk of conflict with the Palestinians and put Israel on a collision course with some of its closest supporters, including the United States and the Jewish American community.
The outgoing government took several small steps to advance LGBTQ rights, including rescinding a ban on blood donations by gay men, streamlining access to gender reassignment surgery and taking a clear stand against “conversion therapy,” the scientifically discredited practice of using therapy to “convert” LGBTQ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations.
The incoming government includes two ultra-Orthodox parties that do not allow female candidates, and Religious Zionism, an umbrella movement whose leaders are vocally homophobic.
Members of the LGBTQ community serve openly in Israel’s military and parliament, and many popular artists and entertainers as well as several former government ministers are openly gay. But leaders of the LGBTQ community say Israel has a long way to go to promote equality.
Netanyahu and his religious and nationalist parties captured a majority of seats in the Knesset in Nov. 1 elections. Last week, he said he had successfully formed a new coalition. The government, however, has not yet been sworn into office, and Netanyahu and his partners are still finalizing their power-sharing agreements.
Netanyahu served for 12 years as Israel’s prime minister before he was ousted from power last year.
____
Israeli doctors reject Netanyahu allies’ anti-LGBTQ remarks
Isaac Scharf
AP / December 27, 2022
JERUSALEM – Israel’s largest medical center and health care workers from hospitals around the country have spoken out against remarks by allies of Benjamin Netanyahu calling for a law to allow discrimination against LGBTQ people in hospitals and businesses.
It was part of a broader blowback against remarks made this week by Religious Zionism politicians calling for legal discrimination against LGBTQ people.
Netanyahu’s new government — the most religious and hard-line in Israel’s history — is made up of ultra-Orthodox parties, an ultranationalist religious faction, and his Likud party. It is to be sworn in on Thursday.
Earlier this week, two Netanyahu allies from the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party said that their faction seeks to change an anti-discrimination law in a way that would permit businesses and doctors to deny service to LGBTQ people on the basis of religious belief.
Orit Struck, a Religious Zionist lawmaker, said her party seeks a change to the country’s anti-discrimination law that would include allowing religious health care providers to refuse to treat LGBTQ patients “so long as there are enough other doctors to provide care.”
Sheba Medical Center released a video on Instagram of health care workers from around the country on Monday saying “we treat everyone.” Similar statements were made by doctors and administrators at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.
Netanyahu later rebuked Struck for her remarks, saying there would be no curtailing of LGBTQ rights under the new government.
Yated Neeman, a newspaper affiliated with one of the ultra-Orthodox parties in Netanyahu’s coalition, published an editorial against the Religious Zionism politicians, saying they were “defaming Judaism worldwide” and branding the future government as “one that persecutes Arabs, minorities and discriminates against people on the basis of religion and more.”
Several Israeli companies said they would not work with businesses that discriminate against clients for religious reasons.
Bank Discount, Israel’s third largest bank, said Monday that its board decided that it “would not grant credit to businesses or bodies that discriminate against clients on the basis of religion, race, sex or sexual orientation.”
Wiz, an Israeli cybersecurity company, expressed “grave concern” over Religious Zionism politicians’ remarks and said it would require companies hiring its services to commit not to discriminate against its clients.
