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Israel’s Likud Signs Coalition Deal With Far-Right, Homophobic Noam Party
Noam party leader Avi Maoz. (Noam Party)

Israel’s Likud Signs Coalition Deal With Far-Right, Homophobic Noam Party

Israeli Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party signed its second coalition deal on Sunday, with the far-right, explicitly homophobic Noam party. This follows the coalition agreement signed on Friday between Likud and the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party and brings Netanyahu a step closer to returning to power as head of what promises to be the most extreme right-wing government in Israel’s history.

Under the agreement, Noam’s sole lawmaker, Avi Maoz, who was elected as part of the Religious Zionism list, will be a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, tasked with heading a new government agency, to be called the “National Jewish Identity Authority.”

Maoz will also head Nativ, the government agency that encourages and helps facilitate the immigration of Jews from the former Soviet republics.

Maoz supports an ultra-conservative interpretation of Jewish religious law that calls for gender segregation not only in synagogues – a norm in Orthodox Judaism – but in public venues such as universities, cultural events, and public transportation.

The coalition agreement with Noam was widely condemned by LGBT advocacy groups and political leaders from the center and left.

The Aguda – The Association for LGBTQ+ Equality in Israel called the intention to appoint Maoz a deputy minister in the future government a “low point” for the State of Israel.

“The man who called us perverts and pedophiles, and referred to our sexual orientations as ‘upside down,’ has no right being a deputy minister in an Israeli government,” the Aguda said in a statement. “His work revolves around an obsession to take away rights from the LGBTQ+ community and to legitimize hate against it.

“We will not allow even the slightest violation of our rights,” the LGBTQ+ group asserted, warning that any rolling back of LGBT rights would be met with a “widespread public response by the dominant majority within the Israeli public.”

Prime Minister Yair Lapid slammed the deal with Noam, writing on Twitter, “It appears that, instead of a ‘fully right-wing’ government, the one being formed is fully unhinged.”

“Netanyahu hiring Avi Maoz, Rabbi [Zvi] Thau’s representative, as deputy minister is nothing short of insanity,” the prime minister said.

Thau, considered the spiritual leader of Noam, a party that ostensibly champions “family values,” is under police investigation after being accused of sexual assault and has in the past supported other public figures accused or convicted of sexual assault.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz, head of the National Unity electoral alliance, charged on Twitter that Maoz’s Jewish identity is a “racist identity. We will fight this extremist Netanyahu government with all the tools at hand,” he said.

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