Healthcare professionals from hospitals across Israel and Israel’s primary medical center have come out against remarks made by Benjamin Netanyahu’s allies advocating for legislation to permit discrimination against LGBTQ persons in workplaces and hospitals.
It was a part of a more significant backlash to comments made this week by MPs who supported Religious Zionism and called for the legal discrimination of LGBTQ people.
The ultra-Orthodox parties, an ultranationalist religious faction, and his Likud party make up Netanyahu’s new cabinet, the most religious and hard-line in Israel’s history.
Thursday is when it will be sworn in.
Earlier this week, two Netanyahu allies from the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party said their group wanted to amend the anti-discrimination law so that companies and medical professionals may refuse to treat LGBTQ persons because of their religious convictions.
A religious healthcare practitioner could decline to serve LGBTQ patients “so long as there are enough other doctors to give care,” according to Orit Struck, a Religious Zionist MP.
This revision to the nation’s anti-discrimination statute is something that Orit Struck’s party is pushing for.
Similar declarations were made by doctors and executives at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and Barzilai Hospital in Tel Aviv in a video posted on Instagram by Sheba Medical Center on Monday declaring, “we treat everyone.”
Following Struck’s comments, Netanyahu chastised her and promised that LGBTQ rights would not be restricted under the next administration.
A publication associated with one of the ultra-Orthodox parties in Netanyahu’s coalition, Yated Neeman, issued an editorial criticizing Religious Zionism lawmakers for “defaming Judaism globally” and for “discriminating against people based on religion and more” in the future administration.
Several Israeli firms declared they would not cooperate with organizations that discriminate against customers because of their religion.
The third-largest bank in Israel, Bank Discount, announced Monday that its board had determined that it “would not offer credit to organizations or businesses that discriminate against customers based on religion, race, sex, or sexual orientation.”
Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz expressed “great concern” over statements made by lawmakers who supported Religious Zionism and stated it would demand that businesses using its services commit not to discriminate against their customers.
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