An ultra-Orthodox Israeli lawmaker was
forced to resign over attending his gay nephew's wedding.
Shas MK Yigal Guetta on Sunday told
Army Radio that he made his entire family attend the wedding, even
though he does not approve of such unions.
“[My nephew] said he wanted my
blessing,” Guettta said. “I told him I don't understand about
such things. And he told me that he's gay and that he's marrying a
man. So I told him that now I understand even less.”
“My entire family went to the
wedding. I usually don’t tell my kids to what events they should
go, but this time I told them attendance was mandatory. Beforehand, I
told my kids: 'We're going to make him happy because he's my sister's
son and I want him to be happy, but I want you to know that according
to the Torah this [wedding] is forbidden and an abomination. I have
no leeway on this.”
Guetta's revelation prompted outrage
from five leading Sephardic rabbis, who said that Guetta had
“publicly desecrated God's will” by forcing his family to attend
a wedding that “is forbidden,” Haaretz
reported. The rabbis demanded Guetta's ouster from the deeply
religious Shas Party.
Rather than being asked to leave,
Guetta resigned on Wednesday.
A source within the Shas Party told
Haaretz that the rabbis “didn't even try to hear Guetta's
version of the event.” “The person who sent them the recording
of the radio interview dropped the part in which Guetta explains that
it is forbidden according to religious,” the source said.