November 12, 2013
"No Gays Here," Says Israeli Mayor, Sparking Outrage
Winnie McCroy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
An ultra-Orthodox Israeli mayor sparked international outrage this week after saying that there were no homosexuals in his 'holy' city. According to an article in the UK Telegraph, Moshe Abutbul, the Haredi mayor of Beit Shemesh, made the comments during an interview on Israeli national television's Channel 10 last Friday. Abutbul was recently re-elected as mayor of this city of about 70,000 people, and is facing investigation over alleged voter fraud.
"We have none of those things [homosexuals] here," Abutbul told the UK Telegraph. "Thank God, this city is holy and pure."
Abutbul told the UK Telegraph that he let law enforcement handle the LGBT community, saying, "There's the Health Ministry, let them handle it. The Health Ministry, the police."
On November 10, HAARETZ reported that the Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgendered in Israel had filed a complaint of incitement with the police against Abutbul. The city is at the center of a roiling cultural divide between Israel's deeply conservative and secular populations.
"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," attorney Ben Ilan wrote in a letter to Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar, as reported in HAARETZ.
"This constitutes incitement, urging attacks on and a show of contempt for the LGBT community," said Shai Doitsh, the chairman of the Association, in that article. "What would the mayor of Beit Shemesh say if he were to hear another mayor say on television that he would deal with Haredim through the police and the Health Ministry? Would he think it was appropriate for such a person to continue serving as the mayor of a city?"
Ironically, Abutbul's statements came in a program that featured an interview with a gay man living in the city, who said that there was a large LGBT community there.
Winnie McCroy is the Women on the EDGE Editor, HIV/Health Editor, and Assistant Entertainment Editor for EDGE Media Network, handling all women's news, HIV health stories and theater reviews throughout the U.S. She has contributed to other publications, including The Village Voice, Gay City News, Chelsea Now and The Advocate, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
