Chareidi MKs Incensed As Bill Banning LGBTQ Conversion Therapy Passes In Knesset

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JERUSALEM (VInnews) — Israel’s fragile coalition was thrown into disarray Wednesday afternoon after a bill submitted by opposition member and Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz calling for the banning of the use of conversion therapy passed in the Knesset by a majority of 42 to 36. Members of Blue and White voted against the coalition and in favor of the controversial bill.

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The legislation would revoke the licenses of psychologists who practise conversion therapy and fine them and even jail them for repeat offenses.

Charedi MKs were incensed by the treachery of Blue and White and shouted “shame and disgrace” after the bill passed. The Haredim were also angry at the Likud for allowing Public Security minister Amir Ohana, a confessed homosexual, to vote in favor of the bill and not ensuring that the bill would be rejected.

Blue and White decided to support the bill shortly before the vote. “We promised and we upheld,” tweeted Defense Minister and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz. “Conversion therapy was born in sin and its place is outside of the law and the public norm. We will make sure that everyone, from every background and sexual orientation in Israel will have free choice and security in their identity.”

In response, UTJ announced that it was halting all cooperation with Blue and White. A number of MKs addressed Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, stating that “You will not be prime minister.” Shas MKs left the Knesset plenum fuming and said that they would refuse to participate in any Knesset votes until further notice.

UTJ MK Yaakov Asher said that “It was expected from a party that claimed to be a ruling party to act responsibly and not on whims and revenge, certainly not on issues concerning the most sensitive aspects of Judaism. This is a categorical violation of the coalition’s mutual commitment. It is impossible for Judaism to be held hostage in the struggles and mutual revenges of Blue and White and the Likud.”

Housing Minister Ya’acov Litzman also spoke out against the approval of the bill, saying “The rotten conduct of Blue and White against coalition discipline is a challenge to the political partnership with them. The Likud must decide whether it knows how to run a coalition or whether it is losing itself politically.”

The UTJ party declared that “the law which passed harms the sanctity of the family and represents a clearcut violation of the coalition agreement. The support of members of Blue and White for the law has harmed the trust UTJ placed in their party. We are halting all cooperation with them from this moment and we call on community leaders and Chareidi heads of local councils to abstain from any cooperation with Blue and White representatives.”

In the past, The Israel Psychological Association has spoken out in the past against conversion therapy.

“The considered treatments were not found to be helpful, and they could cause real damage,” the Israel Psychological Association said in a paper quoted by Horowitz at the Knesset in June. “There is no place for any treatments that is based on the assumption that homosexuality is a disease or disorder requiring treatment, or for any treatments that places for itself the goal of changing sexual orientation.”

Conversion therapy could lead to “mental damage, including anxiety, depression and suicide,” the association said. “Other possible damage includes isolation and social withdrawal, difficulty making intimate and sexual connections, avoiding social connections, harm to religious belief, anger and distancing toward parents.”


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Moshe in NJ
Moshe in NJ
3 years ago

From which party are the ignorant in the chamber wearing masks as chin-guards as a pandemic roars back in Israel?

duvi feder
duvi feder
3 years ago

Conversion therapy is worthless I wholeheartedly agree but sanctioning the LGBTQ community is an abomination.

Educated Boro parker
Educated Boro parker
3 years ago

Now I see why the old satmar rebbe rabbi Yoel ztl was on target against the tziyonim. He saw how dangerous they were.

As we enter the 9 days
As we enter the 9 days
3 years ago

Netanyahu is so busy being hounded by the corrupt judges that he has no time to concentrate on the back stabbing the Blue & White are doing to their coalition partners, yes “partners”. If the Chareidim leave the coalition, the government falls.

Phineas
Phineas
3 years ago

Of course there are people who are born homosexual. They are not allowed to engage in homosexual activity but it doesn’t mean they chose to have such urges. There is a documentary called Trembling Before God which has interviews with Rabbonim who counsel homosexuals and some sent them for conversion therapy. They acknowledge it didn’t work and don’t claim that the people they counsel chose to be like this, in fact, they are doing what they can to change, albeit unsuccessfully.

Educated Boro parker
Educated Boro parker
3 years ago

Educated archy is correct
No one is born gay or a murderer or a thief. Some people may be prone to murder but they need to channel their drive to becoming a shochet or mohel or doctor. Men who have a problem should marry women who have the same problem. Problem solved.

Take a lesson from NYC which repealed its conversion therapy ban
Take a lesson from NYC which repealed its conversion therapy ban
3 years ago

Even ultra-liberal NYC repealed its ban on conversion therapy after being challenged in court on it by a Lubavitcher therapist.

Israel should learn from NYC, and not infringe on people’s right to seek treatment.

Educated Archy
Educated Archy
3 years ago

Look folk the point I am making is clear.

Zenus is a terrible temptation. I don’t see why one is “born” with a tavia for another gender vs same gender? Both are tremendous nesyonas. I don’t judge anyone even those that commit infidelity because the nissoyan is so great. But all will admit its a sin.

The idea of saying one is ” born with it” is a PC way of kashering it up a without saying the word mutar.

Umm okaaay
Umm okaaay
3 years ago

 Educated Archy
Just a few points.
Everyone knows that Gay acts are prohibited, that is not debatable.
Why you’re so adamant that one cannot be born inherently with gay tendencies is very unclear, we all know that there are people that develop it later in life and that would most likely be self taught (whether it is willfully or not, it can be either way)
But there does seem to be very strong evidence of people that are born with these tendencies, in the DSM4 it was diagnosed as Gender Identity Disorder, it was taken out in the recent DSM because of the PC culture they were pressured to remove it …this is when a male or female feel like they belong to the opposite gender, which many people think is a totally separate issue, but the root of the whole entire gay issue is all linked to Gender Identity Disorder, either them feeling like the opposite gender hence them being attracted to the same gender…which is why gay men will have female tendencies …etc ..this is way to long of a discussion for a comment…but my point is, there is absolutely nothing in halacha that says a person can’t be born with inherent charachter flaws, whether or not he is actually a Ba’al Bechirah or not obviously is dependant on if it’s in his control or not, I’m sure MOST gay ppl will absolutely be called baalei Bechirah…are there a select few individuals that somehow have no control (something along the lines of an Impulse Control Disorder like trichotillomania or pyromaniacs etc..) and it is a serious mental disorder that’s possible as well…none of this goes against mainstream halacha/hashkafa…

CudahyKid
CudahyKid
3 years ago

Mr Archy,
“Transy?” Really? I really hope you just wrote down the wrong word.

Triumphinwhitehouse
Triumphinwhitehouse
3 years ago

So quit the coalition

Steve
Steve
3 years ago

I could vouch for myself that conversion therapy does work, it worked for me, they are all liberals that want to discredit anything that works against them and against their agenda, it has nothing to do with science and doctor, they are also humans they have their own desires, politics and agendas, what they want the scientific study should proof that is going to be the result, as you have seen lately with covid-19, all study’s were made to proof Trump wrong, staring from hydroxychloriquin not only doesn’t work what is dangerous and so on… (Till the truth of course came out that it does work), the same doctors that don’t let you open your shuls and schools cuz covid-19 the same doctors claim that going out for protesting is ok, and they openly said cuz the BLM movement is a greater benefit then getting sick and dying from covid-19, so yes it is politics.

E. Green
E. Green
3 years ago

Archy as a supporter of the Blue and White party you cant have it both ways, Mrs Yankelovich is also a supporter of this legislation. Why anyone calls her Chareidi is beyond me, If she is “Chareidi” she should immediately leave Blue and White.

Dovid
Dovid
3 years ago

Even if there was something actually biologically different in the genetic makeup of a “gay” person, what difference does that make? We have Torah on that too. There is the androginus or tumtum…
Are they allowed to marry?
What about a krus shifcha? Is he allowed to marry?
No.
So these are ACTUAL BIOLOGICAL issues, that were no fault of their own, yet they are forbidden to marry.
What about a mamzer, r”l. Or a Ger Mitzri. Also, for the most part, not allowed to marry. Certainly not advisable for the mamzer to have children.
Or shall we make it a bit more practical? What about, lo aleinu, somebody is horribly disfigured, and cannot get married because of it. Or very very sick, r”l. Or more pressing, just a regular person who cannot find a spouse.
All of the above are biological/genetic/religious/societal/etc reasons why someone cannot be intimate with another person.
So how do these people make it through life with normal urges and desires: for partnership, a family, etc.
The answer? With Hashem’s help. BUT NOT THROUGH TRANSGRESSING THE TORAH!
These tests are awful for a person. We shouldn’t ever know such difficulties, but there are plenty of situations in Jewish history that we hope to never experience again. These people might very well be going through their own personal Auschwitz. But there is a Torah for people in Auschwitz, and there is a Torah for everyone, everywhere.

My point: even if you could find all the evidence in the world that these people were born with something biological that makes them desire these things, it doesn’t change the laws of our holy Torah.

And for those chiming in with their feelings and “science”, the job of the Jew is to preserve the Law of Sinai. Both the Oral and Written Torah. And just like we are governed by G-d what we can eat, we are governed (perhaps even more so) on what relationships we are allowed to engage in.

If you disagree, then ok, but you can’t ask the protectors of the Torah to trade it in.

CL
CL
3 years ago

People so vehemently opposed to the idea that gays are born that way are probably repressed homosexuals. Why would HKB”H cause people to be born with their brains wired to be attracted davka to the same gender and not the opposite? I don’t know. I don’t know why the world looks like it is billions of years old either, maybe when Mashiach comes we’ll find out. But we do know that everything Hashem does is just. Point is you don’t know the mind of God to say he would never create anyone like that when he clearly has. People have landed on the moon, time and space are relative, and most gays are born that way.

Now we all have latent homosexual feelings to some degree, even if very mild compared to our hetero orientation, it is possible that in some people these feelings are exaggerated due to molestation, trauma, depression, etc. but lemaaseh the evidence is clear that there is a small percentage of people whose brains are just wired to be gay, and that there have been people like that throughout recorded history.

Educated Boro parker
Educated Boro parker
3 years ago

Here are the facts.
No one is born gay just as no one is born a thief or murderer. It’s free choice. Otherwise the Torah is not real. Yes there are people born with certain drives like killer instincts. Such people should channel their drive to become a mohel,schochet or Surgean.
Conversion Theraphy is a good thing. Gays have a high suicide rate due to their evil choice. It has nothing to do with Theraphy. Science today in many cases like educated archy points out is voodo science. In Nazi germany their scientist and doctors believed Jews were subhuman. So much for the so called doctors.

PaulinSaudi
PaulinSaudi
3 years ago

Yes. It is illegal to practice quack medicine.

CudahyKid
CudahyKid
3 years ago

To bad, so sad. I believe that most people in the medical world say that LGBTQ+ conversion therapy is dangerous. It leads to depression and sometimes suicides.
Those wonderful people that are LGBTQ+ are born this way. It is in their genes.
I wish that the discrimination of the LGBTQ+ community would stop.
As for the Chareidi MK’s, I wish they would remember that Israel may be a Jewish state, it is not governed by Halakha.