Rabbi Zephaniah Drori, the Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Shmona, warned in an interview with Arutz Sheva that LGBTQ pride parades harm both the religious sector and secular Israeli society.
"It's very strange to me that people who live a certain way because of weakness, illness or their uncontrolled inclinations want to be defined in terms of pride. I do not understand the very purpose of such parades, which create tension within society and provoke all sorts of forces which should not be provoked," Rabbi Drori said.
"There are also people in the religious community who have such tendencies, and I know many who lost control over it because of the gay pride parades. They fell into these weaknesses when they could have overcome them, but as a result of this 'pride' issue, they succumbed," Rabbi Drori added, "They could have lived as normal families, but now they need to show that they are worthy [of equal recognition because of their inclinations]. They have to present themselves inappropriately. Therefore, I do not understand why if people want to live in a certain way, they have to turn it into a civil war within the nation and be proud of it."
He said that the LGBTQ people themselves know that their way of life is not the future of the nation. "It is well known that this is not something that will build the nation. Will there be children from such couples? A [heterosexual] man can be proud of building up his people, but what will the nation get from such couples? They know that they are different from normal people, and that they will not have a family. They know it will limit them, so what is there to be proud of?"
Rabbi Drori said, however, that it is forbidden to harm LGBTQ people. "I do not accept those who respond to this subject in too harsh a manner. After all, there are people with such weaknesses. We do not want to degrade them, G-d forbid. But why is there so much interest in something that overrides the nation's ability to live and grow?"
"In the northern countries, Sweden and Norway, this matter is very common and there is no childbirth," he noted. "Even in the United States, 50 percent of the Jewish population in the United States who have families do not want children."
"Human society has long since abandoned the recognition of the family as a basic unit of society, and the State of Israel to this day, including the LGBT sector, understands that the family is the supreme value. If we lose the value of family we will lose the value of our will to live.
"The greatest blessing that we received from G-d, even in the time of creation, was to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the land, as it says: 'I will make you fruitful and increase you' (Leviticus chapter 26, verse 9). This is the foundation of our desire to have more and more Jews, to be bigger, stronger, and more holy. I do not understand how people can fight this. I do not believe that a lot of the LGBT people want this now. They just enter into a trance at events like [pride parades]...Look how many people here are investing in building families and solving gynecological problems so as to have children. That is the record of the sacredness of this nation. So are we to disregard all of that? Get rid of it? Belittle it? This is incomprehensible."