Shas MK resigns amid furor over his attendance at nephew’s gay wedding

Shas MK Yigal Guetta officially resigned Sunday from the Knesset after his revelation that he had attended his nephew’s gay wedding two years ago sparked an angry backlash from rabbis and party officials.

The ultra-Orthodox lawmaker submitted his letter of resignation to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, ending his political career only 20 months after it began.

He is expected to be replaced by Shas member Rafael Barnaz, the deputy mayor of Bat Yam and the next candidate on Shas’s list.

On Wednesday, Guetta wrote to party boss and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri that he would resign and give up his Knesset seat. That was after a group of rabbis drafted a letter condemning him for his unabashed admission two days earlier that he had attended the wedding. The rabbis urged the public to “call and cry out to all the leaders [of Shas] to not endorse this terrible desecration of God’s blessed name and to remove and fire [Guetta] immediately from his public position to a position that has no public role, and to advertise the fact of his firing.”

“Minister Deri told MK Guetta that he respects his decision, expressed his appreciation for him and thanked him for his valuable work and for the new and energetic spirit he introduced to Shas,” a letter from Deri’s office said.

In an Army Radio interview last Monday, Guetta took pride in how he had handled the delicate question of his relative’s gay marriage.

“Two years ago, my sister called me and said, ‘Yigal, I want to make you happy, my son is getting married in two months,’” Guetta said, recalling that his nephew then got on the line and asked him to conduct the ceremony.

Guetta did not yet understand the nature of the request. “I told him, ‘Listen, I don’t understand these things, but there are people who [officiate at weddings] as a profession, and I promise to find you someone who will do it in the best possible way.’

“Then he said to me, ‘Yes, but I want to tell you something else: I’m gay and I’m marrying a man.’

“I told him, ‘You know what? Now I understand this even less.’”

The news didn’t dissuade him, however. “The whole family went [to the wedding], my wife and I and the kids, who I don’t usually tell which events to go to. But for this, I said that showing up is mandatory. We all went so we could make him very happy.”

Still, he said that he made sure to stress to his children that homosexual relations are forbidden by the Torah, he said.

“I told my kids before we went, ‘You should know that we’re going in order to make him happy, because he’s my sister’s son, and she’s my sister and I want to embrace her. But the Torah says this [relationship] is forbidden and an abomination.” Then he added, apologetically, “‘What can you do? My own judgment is irrelevant here.’”

Following the outcry, Guetta’s sister, Suzy Ben Zvi, told the TV channel that having voted for Shas in most elections, she would no longer do so. “What, did my brother steal? Did he murder? What exactly did he do? ” she asked.

Guetta’s daughter, Simcha, told Channel 10 Wednesday evening that she was “proud of my father, a man who lives in light and not in darkness, and who follows his truth wherever it may lead.

“What did he do? Went to the wedding of his nephew. It doesn’t matter if you’re religious or secular, you should love and respect other people,” she added.

“This nation needs unity, it needs people like him in politics. He’s a strong spokesman for this nation. [In an election,] he could bring four Knesset seats all by himself.”

Marissa Newman contributed to this report.