First cracks in not-yet-formed coalition? Meretz vows to advance LGBT rights

3 June 2021, 9:14 am

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Meretz party chairman Nitzan Horowitz, center, attends a protest of the LGBTQ community in Tel Aviv, July 14, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Meretz chair MK Nitzan Horowitz says this morning that his progressive party’s coalition agreement with Yesh Atid “includes a commitment to advance the LGBT community and the [legal] standing of same-sex couples as married.”

Meretz would work to carry out that commitment in the new government, Horowitz says.

Horowitz’s pledge appears to run counter to the coalition agreement signed with Islamist party Ra’am, which freezes any LGBT initiatives.

Shortly after Horowitz’s interview with Army Radio, the station interviews Ra’am’s MK Walid Taha.

Taha praises the new coalition, saying it is based on “the many things over which there is no disagreement,” but adds, “We won’t support anyone forcing on us values that our community doesn’t believe in.”