Netanyahu integrates the homophobic Noam party into the next Israeli government

Netanyahu is close to forming a government in Israel. The politician who has held the post of Prime Minister for the longest time is one step closer to regaining power after reaching an agreement with Avi Maoz, the leader of the Noam party. The far-right formation, known for its openly homophobic stances, will be represented in the next cabinet alongside other extremist platforms such as Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism and Itamar Ben Gvir's Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power). 

The parties of the radical right will gain a power unprecedented in the history of the Hebrew nation. Netanyahu has bowed to pressure from his bloc partners, who contributed 32 of the 64 seats won in the Knesset in the 1 November elections. The Religious Zionism coalition, which brought together the Smotrich and Ben Gvir parties, made room for the diminutive Noam, who won one seat out of 14 on the joint list. That will be enough to give it government responsibilities. 

Specifically, its leader Avi Maoz will be deputy minister in the prime minister's office. He will work behind Netanyahu's back to promote "Jewish national identity" in a newly created institution, founded at Noam's express request. This will not be his only post; he will also head the Nativ agency, which is responsible for promoting immigration to Israel from post-Soviet states. Maoz was involved in the release of Jewish activists from the former USSR imprisoned for their Zionist activities, the so-called Prisoners of Zion, and later worked under the orders of one of them in the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Construction and Housing.

It seems to have mattered little to Bibi Netanyahu that Noam has a marginal representation in Israeli society. In fact, at first, the conservative Likud leader did not even call his new partner to the negotiations to form a government, as he did with Smotrich and Ben Gvir. He only picked up the phone when Maoz threatened to boycott the coalition and oppose the government 'from the right'. The next day, he was sitting face to face with Netanyahu. 

Noam is a religious nationalist, Jewish supremacist and anti-LGBT party. It was founded thanks to crowdfunding in July 2019 by the closest entourage of Rabbi Tzvi Tau, president of the ultraconservative Talmudic school Har Hamor, with the aim of fighting the normalisation of LGBT individuals and families in Israel, considering that the existing religious Zionist formations had not sufficiently combated what they denounced as the "growing influence" of the collective in public institutions. 

Noam is, in fact, another split in the Israeli far-right bloc that emerged before the 17 September 2019 elections, which were narrowly won by the centrist Benny Gantz, the current acting Defence Minister. In those elections, it failed to reach the percentage of votes needed to obtain parliamentary representation in the Knesset. Nor did he do so in the following two ballots, in which he did not even run, although he finally managed to do so in the elections of 1 November amid the rise of the extreme right. Maoz won the seat as the eleventh name on the joint Religious Zionism list. 

In a joint statement, the party's founders warned that the state of Israel was being subjected to an "unprecedented attack" in which "what is straight has become crooked and what is natural has become forbidden". They denounced those public spaces, including the Ministry of Education and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), were being taken over by the New Israel Fund NGO and other pro-LGBT organisations.

Avi Maoz, the party's chairman in January 2020, argues that members of the collective pose a threat to the traditional family and is calling for the suppression of the gay pride parade in Israel, one of the countries where approval of homosexuality is most widespread. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis and visitors from around the world attend the annual Pride parade in Tel Aviv, one of the world's largest gay pride events. 

The formation ran a campaign in its first-year printing posters with the message "Israel chooses to be normal" as opposed to what it called "LGBT propaganda" and "postmodernism". Two advertising companies turned down the commission to run the campaign. As for women's rights, Maoz believes that women's rightful place is in marriage and parenting. The group also advocates a strict interpretation of the laws of Judaism. 

"The fact that Netanyahu embraces the Noam party and lets it into his coalition gives legitimacy to his extreme and hateful rhetoric against the LGBT community and may increase violence against the community," warns Gil Gan-Mor, the director of the Social and Economic Rights unit of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, in conversation with Atalayar. 

Gil Gan-Mor recalls that "Netanyahu has said that the status quo regarding the LGBT community will not change, but his coalition is based not only on the Noam party, but also on other non-liberal parties that want to weaken the Supreme Court's ability to protect the basic rights of minorities in Israel". "Given that most of the rights of the LGBT community in Israel were granted by the courts, this is very alarming," he says.

Meet Avi Maoz,#6 on the Religious Zionists list, the rep of Noam. pic.twitter.com/j0vPrpuBzt

— benwaxman (not a parody) (@benwaxman) March 8, 2021

The director of the Social and Economic Rights unit of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel alludes to the Religious Zionism and Jewish Power formations. Asked about Bibi's ability to defend his commitments to the LGBT community, he insists that Netanyahu himself is on trial for corruption "and he needs his coalition partners for initiatives to help him with his personal problems, so it is fair to say that there is great concern that he will not be able to stop all the anti-LGBT initiatives of his right-wing partners". 

Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid responded with an open letter to the announcement of Noam's entry into the next cabinet: "Likud voters, is this what you wanted? Every day that goes by, instead of a totally right-wing government, we are getting a totally crazy government". 

"The fact that Netanyahu has appointed Avi Maoz, a representative of Rabbi Tau, as deputy minister in the prime minister's office, is nothing but madness. This is an individual who does not want women to serve in the Israel Defence Forces, does not want women in positions of responsibility, and who supports LGBTQ conversion therapy and all sorts of unenlightened views. Is this what you wanted? For this retrograde nationalist to decide about your lives? About your daughters? About his gay nephew? Is this the Israel you want?" the leader of the liberal Yesh Atid asked rhetorically in the missive. 

Netanyahu has flatly rejected reports that gay conversion therapy, outlawed in the state of Israel, would be reinstated. The leader of the conservative Likud party pointed out that the suppression of gay pride was not part of the terms of the government agreement signed with Noam. Thus, Bibi, who has conducted the negotiations with some discretion, believes that Maoz's representation and power will be residual, as it has been to date.

The candidate designated to form the government is prepared to ask President Isaac Herzog for an extension, more time to give him room for manoeuvre in negotiations with his partners. The deadline expires on 11 December, although by law Herzog is authorised to give the former prime minister an additional 14 days. Local media such as Yedioth Ahronot assume that Bibi will formalise the request in the coming days. 

Netanyahu intends to use this impasse to finalise the details of the various coalition agreements with future members of the government. The Likud leader also wants to give the Knesset more time to push through a law that would allow Shas leader Aryeh Deri, who has been convicted of a tax crime, to take a cabinet post. Likely, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox formation, a regular in Likud governments, will hold the Interior portfolio. 

The odds are that the head of Religious Zionism's list, Bezalel Smotrich, will eventually take the finance portfolio, despite having hoped to take over from the centrist Gantz in defence. Haaretz reports that negotiations are currently focusing on how best to meet Smotrich's demand to take charge of the Civil Administration in the West Bank. Likud accepted this request but refuses to transfer the administration out of the Defence Ministry.

On the other hand, the radical Itamar Ben Gvir will head the Ministry of National Security, the portfolio formerly known as Public Security, which will have more prerogatives to oversee the National Police and the Border Police in Judea and Samaria, the official name under which the West Bank is registered. 

The latest moves reveal that Bibi is caving into his partners' demands, although he will keep the foreign and defence portfolios, among other strategic ministries, for Likud officials. Retired general Yoav Gallant will be the defence minister, while MP Amir Ohana, the first openly gay Likud and right-wing Israeli politician to enter the Knesset, is tipped to be the next Foreign Minister.