Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, July 13, 2023
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, July 13, 2023
Ex-Yamina MK joins homophobic Avi Maoz’s new Jewish National Identity Office
Yamina MK Nir Orbach leads a House Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 21, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/ Flash90)
A former Yamina MK who played a central role in bringing down the last government will stand at the head of a new Jewish National Identity Office under far-right anti-LGBTQ lawmaker Avi Maoz.
Maoz says in a statement that the new “authority with act to strengthen the values of the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, while maintaining our Jewish and national roots and deepening Jewish culture and tradition, both religious and historic.”
Orbach’s decision to bolt the previous coalition was a key domino in the collapse of that government, dropping the ruling bloc to minority status in the Knesset.
