Rise in Anti-LGBT Sentiment in Israel

Activist Yair ("Yaya") Fink filed a police complaint after Rabbi Zvi Thau called on his followers to “wage war" against “postmodernism” and LGBT people which he called a "crime against humanity."  Thau’s new book does not explicitly refer to the word LGBT, but it does frequently discuss matters relating to LGBT people, referring to the LGBT community as a “new culture of eliminating the family.” 

The book complains about efforts to place “parent 1” and “parent 2” in lieu of “father” and “mother” on government forms, among other issues. The book focuses largely on family structure, including comments such as “the period of childhood is a very important period for instilling basic values ​​and basic distinctions, and when a child does not have a father and a mother, all the normal relation to his origin, his past, and his future is blurred.” Thau's book refers to this situation as a "crime against humanity."

Thau has been accused of raping and sexually abusing at least two women. Israel Police announced in June that they had completed the investigation into the rabbi’s case and had transferred the materials collected to the State Attorney’s Office. There have been no updates since.

 

Thau was one of the founders of the Hazon movement which made its debut ahead of elections in 2019 with a large banner at the entrance to Jerusalem reading “A father and a mother = a family. The courage to be normal."  While Hazon’s campaign targeted a variety of topics, including work and public transport on Shabbat, the vast majority of the campaign focused on anti-LGBT matters.

 

The Hazon movement has been replaced by the Noam Party, which ran on an identical campaign, with its tagline being “a normal nation in our land.” The head of the party has expressed strong opposition to LGBT people and Reform Jews.

Yair Fink, who filed the police complaint against Thau, stated "There are important and dark rabbis who have forgotten what it is to be Jewish and continue to incite against hundreds of thousands of members of the LGBT community. When a leading rabbi in the community calls on his followers to take action, the action may be taken. The police must act a moment before the next murder.”   The Agudah - The Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel - condemned Thau’s comments as well, stating “Iran is here." The Agudah added that it had filed a police complaint against Thau, saying the rabbi was inciting violence with his comments.

LGBT-phobia has been on the rise in recent years and has spiked since the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office.