Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Ynet News reports:
Likud’s first openly-gay MK Amir Ohana, who entered the Knesset following the retirement of minister Silvan Shalom, was sworn in on Monday, while members of ultra-Orthodox faction United Torah Judaism decided to leave the plenum in protest.
“I am here with everything that I am – the things I chose to be and those I didn’t – and I’m proud of both,” Ohana said during his swear-in speech, while his partner and two babies were watching from the balcony. “Jew, Israeli, Mizrahi, gay, Likudnik, defense man, liberal, and a believer of free economy.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also the head of the Likud party, welcomed the new MK. “The first impression is the most important, and we were all deeply impressed with your speech. I’m happy to receive you to our ranks. You carry with you an exceptional responsibility – the welcome you received brings together this fractured house. It’s a great responsibility and a great opportunity,” the prime minister said.
More from the Times Of Israel:
Ohana also sided with the residents of south Tel Aviv, who have long complained about the influx of African migrants from Sudan and Eritrea.
“When entire neighborhoods are not as they were, and the elderly are forced to live out the remainder of their lives in fear — I am a south Tel Aviv resident. And when the outside appearance of a man is considered a good reason to hate him, to distance him from neighborhoods and employment — I am an ultra-Orthodox Jew who is not afraid,” he added.
“When a baby is burned with his relatives, dammit, I’m with you, brothers,” Ohana said, finishing his sentence in Arabic. Ohana was referring to the fatal Duma firebombing in July, in which three members of the Palestinian Dawabsha family were killed.
“And when a young girl is stabbed to death at a parade of love and tolerance — I am gay,” he concluded, referring to the murder of Shira Banki in the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade last summer.
