46% of Israelis think homosexuality is a ‘perversion’
August 7th, 2009
Just days after a shooting at a Tel Aviv LGBT centre which killed two people, a survey of attitudes towards homosexuality has found that 46% of Israelis believe homosexuality is immoral.
According to the Haaretz newspaper, 46% of the 498 people interviewed answered yes to the question ‘do you see homosexuality as a perversion?’.
71% of ultra-Orthodox Jews and 64% of Arab Israelis said they thought homosexuality was a perversion, compared to 24% of people who described themselves as secular.
In a visit to the scene of Saturday’s brutal attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to support LGBT Israelis.
“My coming here is meant to express certain values,” said Netanyahu at a speech at the Gay and Lesbian Association in Tel Aviv yesterday (Thursday 6 August 2009).
“I believed that tagging people is wrong. We were all created in God’s image, we all have basic rights and our first and foremost right is to be respected by others and to respect others.
“Unfounded hatred is wrong… and we have to uproot it from society as best we can. Israeli society has made progress when in comes to tolerance and I’m sure we can propel it further.”
Israel repealed a ban on consensual same-sex sexual acts in 1988.
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