Netanyahu says ‘won’t accept’ harm to LGBT rights in Israel

Israel’s incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview on Sunday that he wouldn’t accept any harm to LGBT rights in Israel amid the public outcry over his coalition agreement with leader of the far-right Noam Party, Avi Maoz. 

Maoz is known for his anti-LGBT statements and has already vowed to cancel the annual Pride Month in Jerusalem. Hundreds of Israeli educators have written letters to Netanyahu in recent days expressing their concerns over the far-right lawmaker getting control over informal education at Israeli schools under the coalition deal. This would include deciding which outside organizations are able to visit schools on educational programs, but not impact the core curriculum of schooling. 

“I just won’t accept any of that. It’s not something I’m saying now — I have a record now and a record in general of having two hands on the wheel… I ultimately decide policy,” Netanyahu said during an interview with NBC.

Last week, he also responded to the public's concerns over his far-right allies seeking to reverse the previous government’s reforms benefiting the LGBT community by promising that the Jerusalem Pride Parade “will continue to march.”

“My government won’t harm the LGBT community or the rights of any Israeli citizen,” Netanyahu wrote on Twitter. 

Earlier on Saturday, Israel’s outgoing prime minister Yair Lapid, whose coalition government supported the country’s LGBT community, launched a hotline for parents to oppose the "extreme and dangerous content" which will be promoted by the future member of the new coalition. Netanyahu’s Likud party member Galit Distel Atbaryan in turn told the media that Maoz could do nothing without the prime minister’s approval.