Israeli Pol: Gays Cause Earthquakes

An Israeli politician laid the blame for recent minor earthquakes at the feet of gays in Israel, and said that the country's legislature had provoked the quake through GLBT pro-equality legislation.

Israel News reported Feb. 20 that Shlomo Benizri, a member of the Israeli Parliament, or Knesset, said on Feb. 20 that "homosexual activity practiced in the country" was to account for the origin of the quakes, one of which occurred only two days after the attorney general of Israel found that gay and lesbian Israelis should be granted the right to adopt.

According to the International Herald Tribune, which also published a story on Benizri's remarks on Feb. 20, the tremors actually originated in Lebanon, but traveled across a good part of Israel.

The two tremors last week followed several earthquakes in November and December of 2007, which affected Israel, Jordan, and other regions.

No deaths or serious damage resulted from the tremors.

Benizri, who belongs to the religiously Orthodox Shas political party, made his remarks during a session convened to discuss contingency plans in the event of a more powerful tremor.

As the session on being prepared for the aftermath of a major quake progressed, Benizri offered the suggestion that anti-gay laws would prevent further quakes, and said, "Why do earthquakes happen? One of the reasons is the things to which the Knesset gives legitimacy, to sodomy."

Citing texts that form part of the Torah, Benizri declared that, "the Gemara mentions a number of causes of earthquakes, one of which is homosexuality, which the Knesset legitimizes."

The Knesset has, lately, opened the way for same-sex couples married elsewhere to be recognized as legally wed by the Israeli government. The Knesset has also determined that same-sex couples should have certain protections that heterosexual couples receive.

Those gains follow a 1988 change in Israeli law in which homosexuality was decriminalized.

Those developments have not sat well religious conservatives, such as the Shas party, which has issued similar statements in the past. As noted by the International Herald Tribune, Shas attributed a 1985 tragedy involving a train and a bus in which 22 people died to not enough Israelis observing religious rituals.

In January, Nissim Ze'ev, also a Shas member, called gays "a plague," and suggested that gays in Israel be addressed "just as the Health Ministry dealt with the bird flu epidemic."

The chairman of the Israeli Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Association, Mike Hammel, said of the claim that gays cause earthquakes, "I suppose we should be flattered he attributes us with such magical powers."

Continued Hammel, "One must wonder why Shas MKs are so obsessed with the gay community," adding, "we can all recall the case of the American senator who fiercely spoke out against gays until it was found he himself was gay."