Rabbi Meir Mazuz, head of the Kisei Rahamim Yeshiva, responded in his weekly lesson on Saturday night to the uproar following his remarks last week against the Gay Pride Parades and against Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, the first openly gay Knesset Speaker in Israel’s history.
"The country is in an uproar. What? I said? No one else said the same thing? The Torah said 'it is an abomination', what do you want from my life?" said Rabbi Mazuz.
Last week, Rabbi Mazuz implicitly hinted that Ohana, who served as Public Security Minister at the time of the Meron disaster in 2021, was responsible for the disaster.
"And impudence above all, two years ago when there was the disaster in Meron, they say that the minister who was responsible (Ohana -ed.), is infected with this disease, so there is the question of why did this happen to us? It happened, we have stay away from it!"
Before that, he attacked the pride parade and called it "the parade of beasts".
"We need to stay away from the pride parade, they are boasting that they are doing the pride parade in Jerusalem. When there is such a parade we should shut the windows, and tell the children that ‘there is a parade of beasts here’, these are animals walking on two feet, this is impudence," said Rabbi Mazuz.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday criticized Rabbi Mazuz’s tirade against Ohana.
"I strongly condemn the statements against the LGBT community and the Speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana. Every person is created in the image of God. This is the principle that was brought to humanity thousands of years ago by our people and it is the principle that guides us today as well," Netanyahu said.
Ohana himself responded to the criticism that has been directed at him.
“It is better that I fail a hundred times in unrequited love of Israel than fail once in baseless hatred of Israel,” he tweeted.