Netanyahu: ‘Gays for Gaza an absurdity. If you’re gay there, you’ll be shot in the back of the head’

Ahead of his address to Congress next month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slams anti-Israel protesters in the United States, lamenting a recent poll in which some 20 percent of respondents say they back Hamas over Israel in the war in Gaza.

“Who are they supporting — these murderers, these rapists of women, the beheaders of babies, the burning of innocent civilians, the taking of hostages, including Holocaust survivors,” Netanyahu says in an interview with Punchbowl News. “There’s obviously an issue that affects parts of American society that challenges not Israel but challenges America.”

He adds: “The people who protest with these killers … You have Gays for Gaza. That’s an absurdity if I’ve ever heard one. If you are gay in Gaza, you’ll be shot in the back of the head. Women for Gaza. What are women in Gaza — they’re chattel and other such absurdities.”

Netanyahu’s remarks came in response to question about what his goal was for his upcoming speech, with the interviewer asking how we would address criticism that it would be partisan in light of the decision by some Democrats to boycott the July 24 address.

“I’m not a partisan, I’m not a Republican or a Democrat. I’m an Israeli patriot, and I speak on behalf of the Israeli people,” the premier says. “I intend to speak to the broad spectrum of the American people and to cull bipartisan support that is still solid in America and we need it to stay solid.”