‘My kids cannot be gay’
Schools dedicated an hour to talking about tolerance
▶ A WIDE-RANGING interview in tabloid Yedioth Ahronot with Rabbi Rafi Peretz, the education minister, caused a storm this week over his views concerning LGBT rights.
When asked how he would react if one of his children came out as gay, he said it was not possible since they were “raised in a natural and healthy way”. Instead, he said, his children are “building their homes based on Jewish values” and living in “normative” families.
While it was his homophobic views that made the main headlines, Mr Peretz additionally used the interview to say he supported preventing children of illegal immigrants from studying in Israeli schools, even if that meant deporting them to dangerous countries.
He also said Palestinians would not be able to elect members to the Knesset even after an Israeli annexation of the West Bank and that his electoral partners from Jewish Power, the far-right Kahanist party, were now “moderated” and are “legitimate”.
After the interview, opposition politicians called for his resignation, while a number of mayors in
Tel Aviv and neighbouring cities directed schools in their districts to dedicate an hour to talking with students on themes of tolerance and acceptance. The main teachers’ unions also criticised the minister and supported the mayors.
Even some members of Mr Peretz’s Jewish Home party questioned the wisdom of giving such an interview at such a politically sensitive time and said it was further proof of the lack of political experience from the man who became party leader only nine months ago.
Jewish Home, which ran in the last election in a joint list with the New Right and National Union, currently has only two MKs. Mr Peretz is a follower of the influential Rabbi Ziv Tau, who is the most forceful spokesperson in Israel against LGBT rights and has accused those supporting them of “destroying the family and the nation.”
Mr Peretz has previously supported for “conversion therapy” for young men, but went on to retract his remarks in that case, knowing that even within the religious community that he claims to represent, views on this issue are much more nuanced.