Netanyahu: There will be no harm to LGBTQ 'status quo'

Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that there would be no harm to the "status quo" of Israel's LGBTQ+ community, in response to a lawmaker of the Religious Zionism party who said he would attempt to reverse the Health Ministry’s reforms, explicitly targeting the LGBTQ+ community.

"There will be no harm to the status quo related to the LGBT community," Netanyahu said in closed talks.

The changes proposed by Avi Maoz included reversing the ban on conversion therapy, with the anti-LGBTQ+ Noam faction wanting to allow "psychological counseling for those who don't want to be homosexual,” as well as reinstating the ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood. 

The leader of Noam - which ran as part of the Religious Zionism slate - also said Thursday that his party would "study the legal possibilities of canceling the Jerusalem pride parade," calling the annual celebration an "offensive provocation." 

"I do not intend to interfere in what everyone does in private, but it is illegal to walk naked in the street," he said. 

The Noam faction burst onto the political scene in 2019 with a series of provocative highway signs and videos with the slogan: "Israel chooses to be normal."

Maoz was supported by his colleague Orit Strock, who told Channel 12 News, "Gay pride or not, there should be no parades of people walking in the street naked or half-naked.”

Sofer, a Religious Zionist lawmaker, also accused the LGBTQ+ community of perpetrating "violence."

About 7,000 people march every year during the Jerusalem pride parade. The religious extremist group Lehava - allied with Religious Zionism lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir - organizes counter-demonstrations every time. 

Two stabbings have already occurred during these protests - both perpetrated by the same perpetrator, Yishai Shlissel - in 2005 and 2015. During one of these attacks, Shira Banki, a 16-year-old girl marching with her family, was killed.