MK Avi Maoz (Noam) on Friday released an official statement addressing his feelings about the fact that Israel's Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud) is openly gay and that Ohana's husband is introduced publicly at official government functions.
"With our support, but to our dismay, the coalition appointed the current Knesset speaker, with whom I have no problem on a personal level - on the contrary," said Maoz of Ohana's appointment.
"I was filled with shame and pain, to the depth of my soul," continued Maoz, "when the State of Israel and its official representatives, at the official ceremony in remembrance of those killed in the Holocaust, and at other government events and ceremonies on Remembrance Day and Independence Day, showed the whole world 'Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and his [male] partner' as if it were an accepted and authentic Jewish norm."
"I was filled with shame and pain, to the depth of my soul, when the State of Israel and its official representatives, at the official ceremony in remembrance of those killed in the Holocaust, and at other government events and ceremonies on Remembrance Day and Independence Day, showed the whole world 'Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and his [male] partner' as if it were an accepted and authentic Jewish norm."
Avi Maoz
Regretting past tacit support for Ohana
The Noam MK went on to disclose that he supported Ohana's appointment out of duty to the coalition, and he now regrets that the government has turned Ohana into a "symbol and model for this phenomenon," referring to homosexuality.
He then wrote that he regrets not having walked out in protest the first time Ohana and his husband were introduced publicly at a government function. "We made a mistake not protesting the first time," wrote Maoz, "but no more! We will no longer agree to be silent about the blasphemy and dishonor of the State of Israel that is being carried out publicly. I promise to be your voice."
Throughout the letter, Maoz quoted several Bible verses including Isaiah 14:9, which he used to refer to homosexuality as an "evil" and "vile" phenomenon occurring in God's "sacred" nation. The verse concludes by saying "the land shall be filled with devotion to the Lord as water covers the sea." Here, Maoz was presumably contrasting his own vision of Israel's future with its current status - the former is likened to divine devotion while the latter is evil.
Maoz finished the letter by asserting that Israel will certainly "return to God in complete repentance - without coercion, God forbid. Rather, out of an inner sense of enlightenment."
במכתב ששיגר לאלפי פעילי נעם, התייחס ח"כ אבי מעוז להתנהלות הממשלה, וכן לשימוש הפוליטי שנעשה באורח חייו הפרטיים של יו''ר הכנסת. "האמת איננה ביישנית, איננה וותרנית, ואיננה פחדנית, גם אם איננה פופולרית"המכתב המלא: pic.twitter.com/pSi6Y9Cr5v
— מפלגת נעם (@noamparty) April 28, 2023
Avi Maoz and the Noam Party's history of anti-LGBTQ+ policy
The MK has for months been outspoken in his distaste of that which he views as divisive left-wing propaganda, such as LGBTQ+ issues and feminism. He has also actively pushed for legislation against supporting LGBTQ+ students in schools among other things.
What is more, according to a December 2022 report by Ynet, the party has been keeping track of LGBTQ+ people working in the Israeli media and keeping a blacklist for several years.
In the same report, another Noam document discovered by investigators singled out feminist academics whose research was used by the IDF's gender affairs adviser to the chief of staff, in order to argue that "radical feminist groups" had a toehold in the IDF's system. Another document's headline was "The Takeover of the Education System: How Liberal Organizations and Foreign Governments Control the Education Ministry."
Eliav Breuer contributed to this report.