A meeting of the Knesset Labor, Welfare, and Health Committee on Monday was the scene of vicious exchanges over a bill seeking to adapt Israel's regulations on surrogate pregnancies that would make unmarried women who cannot become pregnant eligible for surrogate services in Israel.
During the meeting, MKs and representatives of gay rights groups demanded that the bill be expanded to include same-sex couples as well.
Currently, gay men wishing to use a surrogate have no choice but to seek the service abroad.
Habayit Hayehudi MK Moti Yogev vehemently opposed the idea, declaring that "Israel is a Jewish, democratic state. It will not be a world leader in perversion."
Yesh AtidMK Meir Cohen demanded that Yogev "take back the word 'perversion.' We aren't in the Dark Ages. You're a respected commander in the IDF, I'm asking it of you."
Chairman of the Labor Committee MK Eli Alaluf (Kulanu) told Yogev that "In the current coalition, a number of measures have been taken to promote LGBTQ rights, and the justice minister [Ayelet Shaked], from your own party, with nobility and respect neither intervened nor prevented them."
Chairman of the Association of Israeli Gay Fathers Udi Ledergor told the committee that while surrogacy could not solve an inability to conceive and bear children, it was a "social arrangement and solution that enabled [people to become] parents. All the squirming here is just a thin veil for homophobia."
Surrogate Hila Meron told the committee that "it's sad that decisions are being made about who is and who is not worthy of being a parent."
Yogev then apologized, saying he did not mean to offend anyone, but added that "the Torah and Judaism serve as the foundation for the Jewish people's values. Neither side has a monopoly on either light or darkness. A child is not a doll. Every child deserves both a mother and a father."
Zionist Union MK Michal Biran retorted: "The world has moved on. There is a consensus on recognizing LGBTQ rights. You're a homophobe. You're discriminating against a large part of the Israeli people. If it were up to you, I wouldn't be in the Knesset, because I'm a woman. You've lost the battle."
Yogev smiled as he told Biran that "you have zero chance of overpowering the Jewish people."
Attorney Mira Hibner-Harel, legal adviser to the Health Ministry, pointed out that Israel was one of the few countries in the world in which surrogate pregnancies were legal.
"It [surrogacy] raises complicated ethical and moral questions. This bill does not address anything other than [a woman's] medical issues," Hibner-Harel told the committee.
