A coalition agreement signed between Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and an openly homophobic far-right leader to form the next government soured the LGBTQ community on Monday.
“It’s a dark day for Israel,” Hila Peer, chairwoman of Aguda, the country’s largest LGBT rights organization, told AFP after Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, and Avi Maoz, leader of the small faction Noam, had signed an agreement the day before giving Avi Maoz a deputy ministerial position in the next government.
Nationalist and anti-gay pride
The right-wing bloc of Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies won a majority in the November 1 legislative elections (64 seats out of 120), ahead of the camp led by the centrist Yaïr Lapid (54 seats).
To form a government, Benjamin Netanyahu is discussing the distribution of ministerial portfolios with his allies, including Avi Maoz (66), the only representative of Noam, known for his nationalist and anti-LGBTQ positions.
“We are going to study the legal options to cancel Gay Pride,” he told Army Radio after the elections, for which he joined the far-right group “Religious Zionism”, whose leaders Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir are open about his disgust. of members of the LGBTQ community.
Under the coalition agreement, Avi Maoz will be appointed deputy minister at the head of an administration in charge of “Jewish identity”, under the authority of the Prime Minister.
“A homophobic, misogynist and xenophobic personality”
The Jewish state is the Middle East’s best student of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer) rights. In particular, it recognizes homosexual marriages celebrated abroad.
Activists fear backlash on these issues, as well as “on women’s fight for equality,” says Hila Peer.
“He is a homophobic, misogynist and xenophobic personality with positions that are known to all and to whom we grant power and authority,” he criticizes.
“Netanyahu’s appointment of Avi Maoz as a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office is simply insane,” outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid tweeted.
The talks are still ongoing
On Friday, Likud and Itamar Ben Gvir’s “Jewish Force” party signed a coalition agreement under which Itamar Ben Gvir will serve as national security minister. But on Monday, talks were continuing with the other parties.
Benjamin Netanyahu has 28 days to form his team, with a possible 14-day extension.
The cabinet that Benjamin Netanyahu will form, already at the head of the Government from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021, could be the most right-wing in the country’s history.
Source: BFM TV
