Steinitz denies signing LGBT petition before Tel Aviv rally

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz on Sunday denied he had signed a petition to advance LGBT rights prior to addressing an anti-violence and anti-homophobia rally in Tel Aviv, while an organizer maintained that the Likud minister had indeed signed the document.

Organizers at the Saturday night rally put together by the left-wing group Peace Now had demanded that all speakers commit in writing to advance legislation benefiting the LGBT community. Education Minister Naftali Bennett and MK Yinon Magal, of Bennett’s Jewish Home party, were disinvited from addressing the rally after they refused to sign.

Steinitz addressed the crowd amid heavy heckling and read out a portion of the petition in his speech. He was one of numerous speakers addressing the crowd at the protest following two attacks in recent days — the stabbing of six people at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade on Thursday, and the firebombing Friday of a Palestinian home which killed a Palestinian toddler.

In an interview with Army Radio Sunday, Steinitz denied signing the document.

“Such conditions are not acceptable to me; I am a cabinet minister and I do not sign documents,” he said. “Though I have no objections to the document at all — which is why in lieu of signing it I read out a few lines from that text. As a minister, I don’t sign petitions.”

However, organizer Yaniv Weitzmann maintained that Steinitz had signed the petition.

“Yuval Steinitz signed it, he stood on the stage and despite the booing read what he had signed. Steinitz was next to me, I gave him the form,” Weitzmann said.

The radio station posted a photo online of the minister perusing the form, pen in hand. A date was filled out on the top of the form, but no signature.

https://twitter.com/GLZRadio/status/627752496476192768

The Likud minister addressed the crowd over loud heckling and boos.

Bennett, the education minister, said Sunday that he supported the rights of the LGBT community, but not gay marriage. The Jewish Home party leader also distanced himself from comments made by fellow party member Bezalel Smotrich, who termed the gay pride parade an “abomination march.”

“I am in favor of full rights for the gay community,” Bennett told Army Radio. “In terms of formal recognition by the State of Israel for marriage — no.” The education minister said the organizers retracted the invitation to the rally after the crowds were found to be hostile.

Magal, the Jewish Home Knesset member who was turned away from the rally, told Army Radio that he needed four guards in his security detail at the protest. “They told me, ‘Be careful, they’ll attack you,'” he said.

“It’s completely insane. Am I responsible for the murder?” Magal said. “They presented it as if I am responsible for the homophobic attack on Thursday and for the terrible murder of the baby. Enough with the attempts to tarnish the right wing.”

Smotrich on Saturday condemned the “witch hunt” against those opposed to gay marriage, terming the pride parade an “abomination parade.”

“Anyone who dares oppose same-sex marriage and the abomination parades are arrested by police,” he wrote on Twitter. “Crazy. A dark day for democracy.”

Bennett in response told Army Radio that those statements “had no place.”

“I personally rebuked them for this,” he said. It was unclear who “them” referred to. “I can only hope, and pledge that as education minister in Israel, I will do everything I can to end this discourse.”

LGBT activists bombarded Smotritch’s Facebook wall on Saturday and Sunday with photos of gay couples and memes poking fun at the Knesset member.

https://www.facebook.com/Bezazelsmotrich/posts/10153546099608442

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