‘Desecration of God’s name’: Haredi MKs regret backing Ohana, a gay lawmaker, as Knesset speaker

Yitzhak Pindrus, a lawmaker for the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, says appointing Amir Ohana, a gay lawmaker, as Knesset speaker was a “desecration of God’s name.”

“There’s one thing that, in my opinion, was an error,” Pindrus says in an interview with Mishpacha, a Haredi outlet. “They voted for a Knesset speaker, which, on some level, I think involves a desecration of God’s name.”

“I think this desecration of God’s name comes with a price,” he adds, saying that rabbinic authorities should have been consulted on Ohana’s appointment, and that he doubts they were. “There are things about which it is written [in the Torah], ‘And the land shall not spit you out.'”

Ohana, a Likud lawmaker, has been speaker of the Knesset since late 2022.

A later report on Channel 13 says Aryeh Deri, chair of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox Shas party, expressed regret over supporting Ohana’s appointment in private conversations.

Deri has called Ohana’s elevation to the post a mistake multiple times, according to the report.

“We have no divine assistance because we helped appoint Ohana,” the network quotes Deri as saying. “We shouldn’t have supported him as speaker of the Knesset.”

Ohana does not appear to have addressed the statements publicly.