Extremist Noam Party demands to 'amend' gov't protections for women

In addition, the party said it would also demand to establish a headquarters to track and "neutralize" what they deem to be foreign interests, in accordance with the controversial Nation State Law.

By IDAN ZONSHINE
LGBTQ youth protest against far right Noam party at Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem (photo credit: Courtesy)
LGBTQ youth protest against far right Noam party at Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The extremist right-wing Noam Party, part of the larger Religious Zionist list, said on Thursday that it will demand during coalition negotiations that a “government headquarters” be established to “prevent foreign anti-Israeli actors from infiltrating Israel’s public systems and affecting people’s consciousness, change their values and hurt national morale.”
The headquarters would work to “discover and neutralize” foreign interests in Israel using the principles of the Nation-State Law, which has been widely criticized for having the potential to legally reduce Arab Israelis to second-class citizenship.
In addition, the party said it would work during the negotiations to “amend” Government Resolution 2331 to reflect “Jewish values,” as the party sees them.
Resolution 2331 was based on UN Resolution 1325, which urges countries to increase the participation of women and incorporate gender perspectives in all UN peace and security efforts.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid slammed the announcement on Twitter, writing: “The Noam Party’s condition for Netanyahu: Repeal Government Resolution 2331, which guarantees protection for women from violence and promises adequate representation for women.”
“Is this the government you want?” Lapid asked. “A disturbed, racist, chauvinistic government that will take Israel back to the Middle Ages? No sane prime minister or – any sane publicly elected official – would allow such a thing to happen. It’s time for decisions.”
Lapid hinted heavily that those who are still considering whether to recommend him to President Reuven Rivlin as the candidate best suited to form the next government, namely Yamina Party leader Naftali Bennett, should decide now.
“After Netanyahu took women back to the kitchen during the coronavirus crisis, now his ‘natural partners’ in the Noam Party want to get us, women, out of the decision-making centers,” said Labor Party leader Merav Michaeli. “This is not an April Fools’ prank. It’s only for the past 100 years that we’ve even have had the right to vote. Every step in our struggle for equality is a world in its entirety. This is the darkness that Netanyahu brought to the Knesset. They and he and the discrimination must go.”
“Welcome to hell,” Meretz Party leader Nitzan Horowitz wrote on Facebook of the decision. “This is the vision of the State of Israel that the Noam Party presents. They did not wait long to expose the dark, racist and fascist face of their party. A strong stench surrounds the plans of Avi Maoz, the party’s chairman, Netanyahu’s closest ally. It is time for the sane parties in Israel to be on the right side of history and end Netanyahu’s term now.”
Meretz Party MK Tamar Zandberg also responded to Noam’s demands on Twitter, writing: “The darkness mistakenly called the ‘Noam Party’ was hidden throughout the entire election cycle only to reveal that, in exchange for immunity for Netanyahu, they would demand we live in a Handmaid’s Tale-style world” – where women are subjugated. “The Netanyahu government is not just a game of political seats, but a tangible danger to the safety of women and the LGBTQ+ community.”

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Noam also announced on Thursday, as expected, that they would recommend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be the one tasked with forming a government.
Noam was established by the most radical elements of the hard-line wing of the religious-Zionist community – specifically, close associates and allies of Rabbi Zvi Yisrael Tau, head of Yeshivat Har Hamor.
In 2019, before the second recent Knesset election, the party set up booths around the country manned by activists handing out pamphlets explaining Noam’s plan to make Israel “a normal nation” with anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-Reform movement slogans.
Following Maoz’s entrance into the Knesset, and the Religious Zionist Party’s intentions to violate the rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community, pride and women’s organizations will hold a demonstration during the Knesset inauguration on Tuesday afternoon demanding that hatred directed toward women and LGBTQ+ stop, and that no government be formed with parties that promote misogyny and homophobia.


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