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Amir Ohana to Become Likud’s First Openly Gay Knesset Member

Ohana to take seat vacated by veteran politician Silvan Shalom, who resigned last Sunday over sexual harassment allegations

by
Jonathan Zalman
December 21, 2015
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Amir Ohana, the head of Likud’s LGBT caucus, will soon be sworn in to the Knesset. He will become the right-wing party’s first openly gay MK, joining Uzi Even, Itzik Scmuli (currently serving), and Nitzan Horowitz who have come out in the past. At number 32 on Likud’s list of parlimentarians, the door was opened for Ohana after Silvan Shalom—Israel’s Interior Minister, who also serves as Vice Prime Minister—resigned on Sunday due multiple sexual harassment allegations.

Ohana, a lawyer who serves in the IDF reserves, a Shin Bet veteran, lives with his partner and his four-month-old twins in Tel Aviv, reported The Times of Israel. “I will do my best for the State of Israel,” he said.

Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.