Anger over Israeli mayor who says no gays are in his town

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Anger over Israeli mayor who says there are no gays in his town
Moshe Abutbul, the ultra-Orthodox mayor of Beit Shemesh, says no gays live in his town and homosexuality should be a police matter, amid debate in Israel over a proposal to allow same-sex unions


By Robert Tait, Jerusalem

3:10PM GMT 11 Nov 2013

Israel's gay community has filed a criminal complaint against an ultra-Orthodox mayor after he said there were no homosexuals in his town and that homosexuality should be dealt with by the health ministry or the police.

Moshe Abutbul, the Haredi mayor of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem, made the inflammatory remarks during an interview on nationwide television.

"We have none of those things [gays] here. Thank God, this city is holy and pure," he told Israel's Channel 10. Asked how his town handles the gay community, he replied: "There's the Health Ministry, let them handle it. The Health Ministry, the police."

Mr Abutbul, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, made his comments in a programme segment that featured an interview with a gay man living in Beit Shemesh, a town of 75,000 that has become a flashpoint for tensions between conservative religious and secular residents.

The remarks triggered a complaint from the Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgendered [LGBT] in Israel, which accused the mayor of incitement in a letter to Gideon Saar, the country's interior minister.


"These statements by an incumbent mayor in the State of Israel comparing the LGBT community to lawbreakers who must be dealt with by the police or dangers to public health constitute incitement according to Statutes 144(b) and 144(f) of the penal code," wrote the association's lawyer, Ben Ilan.

Mr Abutbul's views on homosexuality were aired against a backdrop of legislative proposals to allow civil unions, including between gays and lesbians. Tzipi Livni, the justice minister, has circulated a memorandum outlining a law to give "official status for the union of couples for joint life" without marrying.

The secular Yesh Atid party, a senior partner in Israel's coalition government, is believed to be tabling a similar proposals.

The far-Right Jewish Home party - another member of the coalition - has voiced opposition to the idea.

Marriage between Jews in Israel is controlled by the chief rabbinate. Jews wishing to wed in a civil union currently have to do so outside Israel and then have it recognised by the interior ministry.

The controversy in Beit Shemesh comes at a time when Mr Abutbul's re-election as mayor last month is subject to a police investigation over allegations of voter fraud.

Police have arrested seven of the mayor's supporters on suspicion that they voted under false identities in the October 22 poll. Around 170 Israeli ID cards were found in a flat in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood, prompting police suspicions that they belonged to residents who were abroad on election day or to fundamentalist Jews who do not vote for ideological reasons.

Mass demonstrations have been staged in Beit Shemesh against the result, in which Mr Abutbul beat his secular challenger, Eli Cohen, by around 900 votes. Mr Cohen and his supporters have called on the interior ministry to hold a new election.

The town has been the scene of bitter controversies over lifestyle and the status of women. In 2011, it drew international headlines after an eight-year-old girl was reportedly spat on and insulted by Haredi men as she walked to school near an ultra-Orthodox neightbourhood. Last year, Egged, Israel's main bus operator, was ordered to compensate a girl who was forced by religious passengers to sit at the rear of the vehicle.



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