Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman reaches out to the LGBT community leaders after a video emerged of a 2013 meeting between him and fundamentalist Jerusalem rabbi Shmuel Auerbach drew widespread criticism.
During the meeting, Liberman was seen agreeing with Auerbach’s opposition to gay pride events in the nation’s capital, telling him that “there won’t be all these parades that they hold here or the gay festivals.”
Liberman, whose party campaigns on a secularist platform, was criticized for the remarks by lawmakers on both the right and left.
Avigdor Liberman meets with hardline Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach in Jerusalem in 2013. (Channel 12 screenshot)
In a letter to the leaders of Israel’s LGBT community, Liberman says he and his party are guided by the principle of “live and let live and respect for all people.”
“We are also not against the orthodox or religious people,” he said. “To each his own. I’ve said before that I would oppose opening a supermarket in Bnei Brak on Shabbat, but I will work to ensure that they don’t close supermarkets on Shabbat in Tel Aviv or Ashdod.”
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Thursday, August 22, 2019
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