Israel has its first gay government minister. He has visited SA.

JTA STAFF

Ohana was in South Africa in August 2017 as part of a delegation of Knesset members from various political parties. The group came to the country to support the local community, and promote dialogue, understanding, and co-operation between South Africa and Israel.

While he was taken aback at the strong bonds between the South African Jewish community and Israel, he was unimpressed by the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) treatment of their group.

“What I find distressing is the way the ANC government claims to strive for peace in our region, but it would happily host Hamas and not members of the Knesset,” Ohana, then a Likud MP, told the SA Jewish Report at the end of their trip.

“They welcome people like Khaled Mashal, a terrorist leader, from an organisation which has a covenant that stipulates that it strives to kill all Jews, but they refuse to see us,” said Ohana, who was one of two Likud MPs on the week-long trip.

“The ANC government says it wants to build bridges, but instead it’s trying to burn bridges.”

Ohana’s appointment comes days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired acting Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who had continued in her position in spite of not earning a spot in the 21st Knesset after April’s elections.

Cabinet ministers don’t have to be members of Israel’s parliament, but after Netanyahu failed to form a ruling coalition after the vote, he said that it would be inappropriate for her and another unelected member of her party, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, to remain in their positions until new elections are held 17 September.

Why Ohana?

A statement from the prime minister’s office has emphasised Ohana’s experience with the justice system, but Israeli publications noted that he is a Netanyahu loyalist who first and foremost supports legislation that would grant Netanyahu immunity from prosecution in at least three corruption cases against him.

Ohana also headed the committee that wrote the controversial nation-state law which states that Israel is not a country of all of its citizens, but a Jewish state.

Ohana may additionally have been a more palatable choice than Betzalel Smotrich of the right-wing Union of Right Wing Parties, who has been demanding the justice ministry portfolio. It is not known whether Smotrich was even in the running, but he definitely damaged his chances when he said recently that he wanted to run the country according to the Torah, and “go back to operating as it did in the days of King David and King Solomon”.

“There goes the halacha state,” a Likud Party spokesman reportedly quipped after the announcement of Ohana’s appointment, using the term for religious law.

Does he have job security?

Netanyahu originally announced that he would keep the justice and education portfolios for himself until the new elections, but changed his mind after some complained that it was wrong for him to act as justice minister while under threat of indictment.

Ohana’s term will be short due to the new elections, but some news outlets report that he could hang on to the portfolio in the next government if Netanyahu has any say.

“He won’t be much of a justice minister,” Ha’aretz columnist Yossi Verter wrote. “This is a transitional government where there is no Knesset and no ministerial committee for legislation. He will influence the way the system is run about as much as the sleepy guard at the justice ministry headquarters on Jerusalem’s Salah e-Din Street.”

Verter also noted that during his tenure in the Knesset, “Ohana hasn’t made any particular effort to advance interests of the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community. His consistent excuse was his commitment to coalition discipline. Over time, this evolved into personal discipline in service of the leader, and on Wednesday, he got his reward.”

Is he good for the LGBTQ community?

Ohana’s loyalty to the conservative Likud is puzzling. In November, the Knesset voted down an amendment to the country’s surrogacy law that would have allowed same-sex couples to have children by surrogacy in Israel rather than forcing them to go to other countries at great expense and emotional hardship. Netanyahu and most of the coalition voted against the amendment, authored by Ohana, with Netanyahu saying that he was afraid of angering the haredi Orthodox parties in his coalition and bringing down the government.

Ohana has a husband, twin children born through a surrogate in the United States, and a harrowing story of not being with the babies when they were born prematurely.

Meanwhile, Israel’s LGBTQ task force called his appointment a “historic milestone”, and said he could make a difference even as an interim minister, pointing to things under his authority that do not require government approval.

Those include softening the protocols for transgender people in the committee for gender reassignment, creating new and better procedures for recognising the non-biological parents of children born via surrogacy, and revamping the process for allowing LGBTQ parents to adopt children outside of Israel.

Netanyahu is expected to give the education portfolio to a leader of the Union of Right Wing parties, namely Smotrich or union head Rafi Peretz.