Opposition, LGBTQ+ orgs. slam Maoz's return to Israel's gov't

Politicians and LGBT – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender – organizations condemned on Sunday the government’s approval to bring ultraconservative and anti-LGBT MK Avi Maoz (Noam) back into the government as a deputy minister in the prime minister’s office, and for instating him as head of a “Jewish National Identity Authority” with a NIS 285 million budget for 2023-2024.

“Avi Maoz resigned, blackmailed the government and has come back more dangerous than ever,” Labor chairperson MK Merav Michaeli wrote on Twitter.

Michaeli argued that just like Maoz was returning to the government, so would the government's controversial judicial reforms.

“The legal reform has been ‘suspended,’ but the reform budget has already passed and the reforms are still there, like a gun to the head, and the coalition is already making it clear that they will be back,” Michaeli wrote.

“I call on my friends Gantz and Lapid to stop the farce of negotiations. This is a trap under the auspices of which the misguided government derives legitimacy from the opposition. Get out of there, and join the protest. It is a fatal error to cooperate with this dangerous and extreme coalition,” Michaeli added.

Havruta, the religious LGBT organization, said in a statement, “The majority of MK Maoz and his party’s dealings are not strengthening Jewish identity, but rather actions to harm LGBT and other communities in the nation of Israel – via ‘outreach,’ which includes de-legitimization of LGBT families, pushing LGBT people out of the public sphere, and delaying blessed processes in different government ministries that aim to embrace Israeli citizens and integrate fragile population groups into general society.”

Havruta CEO Shai Bramson added, “Homophobic education programs, support for dangerous ‘conversion therapies’ and increasing hate towards us and our families, will put all of our community in danger and under pressure. It is anti-Jewish, anti-patriotic and a large desecration of God’s name.”

What will Avi Maoz's Jewish National Identity Authority do?

The government decided in its weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday morning that Maoz will return to the government after resigning in February after he claimed that the government was not fulfilling the coalition agreement between his Noam Party and the Likud.

Further, the cabinet gave approval to pass an additional government decision that will lay out the specifics of the Authority’s budget.

The Authority’s four purposes, according to the government decision, are to “strengthen Jewish identity via a number of projects, includes research, financial support, grants, joint initiatives and actions amongst different population groups, including youth and adults, people with special needs, and other populations”; to develop and found a “transparency system for parents” about external educational programs that are taught in schools, and publish and provide the public access to it, on the condition that this does not harm any of the education ministry’s authorities; to “assist and support education institutions in the field of national Jewish identity, in coordination with the education minister and with his approval”; and publish information to that public on topics of “deepening national Jewish identity and strengthening it.”

Maoz’s Noam Party is ultra-conservative and opposes homosexuality and the LGBT community in general. Maoz acted during the government’s tenure to force government forms to include “father” and “mother” instead of “parent one” and “parent two,” and defines his party’s purpose as “waging war against progressive values,” which he views are the source of moral decay in the West in general, and in Israel in particular.

The move to reinstate Maoz is set to be approved after he voted in favor of the national 2023-2024 budget last week, after threatening to oppose the budget if the government did not pledge to advance the authority's formation.

Opposition Knesset members from Yesh Atid demanded to know last week before voting on the budget started, whether an agreement had been reached between Maoz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Maoz would support the budget in exchange for his reinstatement in the government, which the opposition MKs claimed needed to be presented to the public.

Ministerial Liaison to the Knesset Dudi Amsalem (Likud) declined that such an agreement had been made. Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari claimed on Twitter on Thursday after the government's Sunday cabinet meeting agenda was published that the timing of Maoz's return to the government was not a coincidence and that she would turn to the attorney-general to examine the matter.