An Israeli activist and one-time Knesset candidate for the Yamina party ripped a senior Israeli reporter Sunday evening, after he accused a right-wing lawmaker of leading a “radical religious” campaign against gay rights and women’s rights.
Following the announcement Sunday evening of a coalition deal between the Noam party and the Likud, Barak Ravid, a reporter for Axios and Walla who began his career at the left-wing daily Ha'aretz, called Noam a “radical religious party” dedicated to stripping rights from gays and women.
“The person Netanyahu is shaking hands with is Avi Maoz, the leader of Noam, a radical religious party that focuses on opposing LGBTQ & women's rights. They signed a coalition deal today. Maoz will be a deputy minister at the PM office in charge of a new Jewish identity department,” Ravid tweeted.
Former Yamina party candidate attorney Roni Sassover, a Jewish education activist and founder of the volunteer organization Meirim, called out Ravid over his post, calling his accusations an “outright lie.”
“The Noam party does NOT focus on opposing LGBTQ & women’s rights. That’s an outright lie.”
“The Noam party focuses on education and fighting the progressive movement in Israel which focuses on destroying our Jewish identity and values.”
Israel Hayom correspondent Ariel Kahana also challenged Ravid’s characterization of Maoz.
“The person Netanyahu is shaking hands with is Avi Maoz, a leader of the ‘Let My People Go’ who worked tirelessly to let Jews in USSR, including Nathan Sharansky, go free to Israel.”
“Maoz, who supports conservative families, was also a senior official in Israeli governments.”
This is not the first time Ravid has sparked controversy with his commentary on right-wing lawmakers.
Earlier this month, Ravid came under fire for calling the Religious Zionist Party a “Jewish supremacist” party – a characterization he made only in his English report, but not in a parallel Hebrew report.
“Only in English: Smotrich is described as the ‘leader of Jewish supremacy’, and his party called the ‘Jewish Supremacy Party,’” tweeted Globes reported Avishai Grinzaig. “What is this good for?”
Ravid defended his decision to drop the appellation when reporting in Hebrew, tweeting: “Everything that I wrote in both languages are facts. Smotrich is a supporter of Jewish supremacy. That is also how the [Biden] administration sees it.”
“The Israeli community is already quite familiar with Smotrich and so they don’t need to be shown the connection as much as the American community does.”
“In the future I will write in Hebrew as well that he is a supporter of Jewish supremacy.”
Religious Zionist Party MK Simcha Rothman mocked Ravid, tweeting in response: “One day, one day, you will be able to understand the difference between facts and opinions. But it is not this day!”
Bezalel Smotrich, chief of the Religious Zionist Party, excoriated Ravid over his comments.
“The Left is so consumed with hate for the Right in Israel that it is willing to recklessly harm the State of Israel and to slander it and spread lies and hurt our foreign relations. As far as Ravid and his friends think, as long as they aren’t in power, they should do everything they can to undermine Israel and hurt it, and then turn around and blame the Right. Only someone who doesn’t really love the country could behave like this.”