Rabbi Who Blamed Gays For COVID And Terrorism And Who Said Israeli Soldiers Have Right To Rape Dies At 80

The Times of Israel reports:

Rabbi Meir Mazuz, a prominent ultra-Orthodox Sephardic religious leader known for his inflammatory homophobic comments, died in Bnei Brak on Saturday. He was 80 years old. Mazuz reportedly spent the past few days in a hospital, where his condition worsened until his death. After stating that he believed COVID-19 would not reach Israel because the Halachic way of life would provide Jews with divine protection, Mazuz later blamed the virus’s entry into Israel on the gay pride parades.

In 2023, he called Amir Ohana, a gay Likud lawmaker who had just been appointed Knesset Speaker, “infected.” He also insinuated that Ohana’s sexual orientation led to the 2021 Meron disaster, which saw 45 ultra-Orthodox men and boys killed in a stampede. In 2015, he blamed a wave of deadly Palestinian terror attacks on Pride parades, several months after a Haredi extremist stabbed to death a 15-year-old girl at the Jerusalem Pride Parade.

Read the full article. Mazus last appeared here when he declared that Israeli soldiers have a right to rape Palestinian women. In 2020, he appeared here when he declared that a COVID outbreak in Tehran was due to “the wicked ways of Iranians and their hatred of Israel.” Arab nations, he claimed, were being spared from COVID because they don’t allow Pride parades.