Knesset member says LGBTQ+ community 'more dangerous' to Israel than Islamic State

An Israeli lawmaker notorious for making inflammatory comments has said the country's LGBTQ+ community are more dangerous to Israel than the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

Yitzhak Pindrus, a member of the Knesset from the United Torah Judaism political alliance – part of Israel's current far-right government – told Israeli television's Channel 12 earlier this week that the LGBTQ+ community is "the most dangerous thing for the State of Israel – more than IS, more than Hezbollah, more than Hamas".

"If it were up to me, I would prevent not just the pride march but also the whole movement," Pindrus said weeks after pride marches took place in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

IS seized huge swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, establishing a caliphate whose barbaric rule included genocide and sex slavery. Among the extremist group's targets were LGBTQ+ people, with those suspected of being gay or trans hung or thrown off the roofs of buildings.

Pindrus is a religious conservative who has a history of making inflammatory comments about LGBTQ+ people, whose existence he says is at odds with Jewish religious teachings.

In 2010, while deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Pindrus asked police to permit a "donkey parade" to take place at the same time as the city's pride parade.

At the beginning of this year, Pindrus walked out of the Knesset when Amir Ohana, who was appointed as Israeli parliament's first openly gay speaker, made a speech accepting the role.

Benjamin Netanyahu was elected Israeli prime minister at the end of last year and formed an alliance with several far-right parties, some of which have advocated for discrimination against LGBTQ+ people – despite Israel's long-running attempts to cultivate an image of it being a haven for queer people in the Middle East.

Netanyahu was forced to rebuke comments made by a member of his ruling coalition who said her party sought a change to the country’s anti-discrimination law that would include permitting people to avoid acts that go against their religious beliefs, including discriminating against LGBTQ people in hospitals.