Smotrich: LGBT community attacks, slanders anyone who thinks differently from them
Bayit Yehudi lawmaker refuses to back down from his opposition to gay marriage.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, LAHAV HARKOVUpdated: AUGUST 3, 2015 08:35Bezalel Smotrich.(photo credit: Courtesy/Regavim)
A religious Zionist lawmaker who provoked outrage in the past by referring to the gay pride parade as "a parade of beasts" refused to renounce his remarks in the wake of Thursday's stabbing of six participants in the Jerusalem LGBT procession, and has reaffirmed his opposition to gay marriage.MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) wrote on Facebook that the rally’s organizers “saved [Bayit Yehudi chief Naftali] Bennett from himself,” because the event was “all about incitement and silencing – incitement against the entire Right.”Bennett was disinvited from speaking at a Tel Aviv rally after he refused to sign a document committing himself to promoting pro-LGBT legislation in the Knesset.Smotrich also said that the demonstration “incited against anyone who dares to support traditional family values and oppose recognition of same-sex couples."“We have nothing to do at a demonstration that is entirely an attempt to encourage and legitimize what a religious party cannot legitimize, because it is against the Torah and Jewish values,” he added. “We have nothing to do at a demonstration that is entirely an attempt to silence those who think differently and blame them for acts by insane people to whom we have no connection.”According to Smotrich, among those who oppose the LGBT community, there is one crazy person who was condemned by all, whereas on the LGBT side there is an entire community that attacks and slanders anyone who thinks differently from them.“What happened since last weekend is a bizarre, undemocratic witch hunt of anyone who refuses to get in line with the ‘enlightened Left’s’ political correctness,” he added. “I resolutely oppose violence and promise to oppose recognition of same-sex couples in the Jewish State no less resolutely. I promise to fight violence no less than the attempt to destroy Jewish traditional family values.”Meretz MK Michal Rozin reacted angrily on her Facebook page to Smotrich's posts."When you call the gay pride parade an abomination, you are inciting to murder," she wrote. "It's remarkable that you still dare to write these sort of hateful things after this past weekend."
