Israeli Lawmaker Says Doctors Should Be Allowed To Refuse Care If It Violates Religious Beliefs

Israeli Knesset member Orit Strock said doctors should be allowed to decline to treat a patient if it goes against their religious beliefs, in an interview with the country’s public broadcaster. Strock, from the Religious Zionism party, clarified that this was her position as long as there were other doctors who could provide the treatment. Her comments came during a discussion of her party’s coalition agreement with Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu, which includes an amendment that allows a private business to refuse a product or service to someone if it goes against the store owner’s religious beliefs if it can be obtained at a similar price elsewhere. Strock’s fellow Religious Zionism lawmaker Simcha Rotman, also in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster, clarified that this also meant a hotel owner could refuse to rent a room to a gay couple. Addressing Strock’s comments, Netanyahu said in a statement later on Sunday that: “the coalition agreements do not enable discrimination against LGBTQ+ people or harm their rights to receive services like every citizen in Israel. The Likud will ensure that there will be no harm to LGBTQ+ people or any Israeli citizen.” Strock later clarified: “It is not about the identity of the patient at all, but about the essence of the treatment. If there is a medical treatment that is contrary to halakha [Jewish religious law], an observant doctor will not be forced to give it, regardless of the patient’s identity.” She also said: “The State of Israel is the state of the Jewish people, a people that gave up its life for its religious faith. It is unacceptable that, having established a country after 2,000 years of exile and of laying down their lives for the Torah, this country will call religious faith ‘discrimination.’”