The somewhat unconventional Member of Israel's Knesset, Yigal Guetta, has stepped down after coming under fire from prominent rabbis for attending the wedding of his gay nephew some two years ago.
Guetta was interviewed on Army Radio last week during which he spoke about how two years ago his sister from Kibbutz Ginosar called him to tell him that her son was getting married.
“Here’s a scoop, hold on tight,” the MK for ultra-orthodox party Shas enthused before continuing on to describe how his nephew had told him he was marrying a man and how he had nevertheless attended the wedding along with his wife and children.
“We went together to the wedding, me my wife and my children, even though in general I don’t tell my children where to go, but this time I told everyone “attendance is mandatory” and we went and celebrated with them,” said Guetta, adding however that he told his children that the wedding was “forbidden according to Jewish law.”
This admission led to denunciations from several quarters including the dean of the prestigious Porat Yosef Yeshiva - a Jerusalem institution for studying the Jewish holy texts - Rabbi Moshe Tzadka.
On Wednesday morning, Guetta submitted his resignation to Shas chairman Aryeh Deri who accepted it.
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The MK received backing from liberal members of the Knesset including Chairman of political party Yesh Atid, Yair Lapid, who described the Shas man as an excellent MK and a friend.
“It’s sad that in Israel in 2017 an MK is forced to resign because he participated in the wedding of two people who love each other,” said Lapid on Twitter.
And Zionist Union MK Merav Michaeli called on Guetta to retract his resignation and on Deri to reject it.
“This is a good moment to be reminded that everyone is created in the image of God,” said Michaeli.
Some of the wording of this article has been changed for clarity from the original.
