JERUSALEM — Israel’s outspoken president met last week with representatives of the gay community and apologized for making anti-homosexual remarks to high school students.
Ezer Weizman “said he was sorry about any declaration that caused defamation,” said Avi Sofer of the Society for the Protection of Personal Rights and a member of the delegation that met with Weizman Monday of last week.
“The president says that he must express sorrow for any act or comment that causes public humiliation or can be interpreted as such,” Weizman’s spokesman said.
Allen Bennett, a gay San Francisco rabbi and interim spiritual leader of Temple Israel in Alameda, said he is pleased Weizman apologized but isn’t sure “it will make a difference.”
“The significant damage has been done,” Bennett said. “That can’t be fixed by apologizing.”
Speaking last month at Haifa’s Reali High School, Weizman said he considered homosexuality abnormal and a negative trait, like alcoholism.
“I like it when a man wants to be a man and a woman wants to be a woman,” Weizman told the packed auditorium. “I personally view homosexuality as something negative. The question is how to deal with this phenomena, this social anomaly.”
Weizman added that the Bible proscribes homosexuality and sodomy. “I hope you are not in favor of sodomy,” he told one pupil who had asked the president about his stand on sodomy.
The comments also prompted calls for his resignation from civil rights activists and liberal Knesset members.
Bennett said the Israeli president “inflamed the haredi community and more extremist elements in Israel. It was an invitation to violence.
“He apologized for the invitation. But more people probably won’t hear the apology” than the number that heard Weizman’s original statement.
Weizman, who said he would oppose any law allowing gay marriage, also called for a law governing “how to relate to homosexuality” in general.
“I am aware that homos suffer in society. I’m not pleased about that. But,” he said, “there is too much fuss about this. It is exaggerated. It has turned [homosexuality] into something beautiful.”
Some 300 people later demonstrated outside the president’s residence, demanding that Weizman resign.
“This president has managed to insult just about every sector in Israel,” said Meretz Knesset member Naomi Hazan.
Although Weizman agreed to meet with representatives from Israel’s gay community, a spokesman for the president said he would not retract his statements.
The World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish Organizations demanded that Weizman retract his remarks and apologize.
“That there are gay and lesbian Jews is a reality,” Jack Gilbert, president of the congress, wrote in a letter to Weizman. “Your dehumanizing comments on Friday could act to encourage further violence.”
The controversy came days after Weizman informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would seek another term.
Weizman, whose current term ends in May 1998, told the premier that he plans to run again in an effort to preserve national unity as Israel travels the rocky road to peace with its Arab neighbors.
The nephew of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, took office in 1993 after serving in the military and holding political office for 15 years.
Social activists warned that Weizman’s remarks at the high school would hurt efforts to end discrimination and prejudice against homosexuals.
“The president’s sexual and social preferences don’t interest me. Nor am I interested in what he likes or doesn’t like,” said Labor Knesset member Yael Dayan.
“In Israel, under law, homosexuals and lesbians are equal in all matters. The president’s remarks will cause a regression, including incitement against an entire community.”
Israel’s Chief Sephardi Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron agreed with Weizman.
“Homosexuality is not normal. It’s not wanted and it’s not good. Period,” he told reporters.