A bill outlawing controversial “gay conversion therapy” passed a preliminary vote in the Knesset on Wednesday, drawing cheers from LGBT rights advocates and angering Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox political allies.

The bill advanced after Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party supported the legislation, in a move that generated a fresh coalition crisis. The government’s Labor party also broke with the coalition to back the bill. The opposition-spearheaded motion passed with 42 lawmakers supporting it and 36 objecting.

Among the supporters were many Blue and White MKs, as well as Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, an openly gay member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, whose members were officially told to vote against the bill. Many other Likud ministers and lawmakers were not present.

Gay conversion therapies, also called reparative therapies, have been strongly discouraged in Israel, the US and elsewhere, with major health organizations criticizing what they term pseudo-scientific methods and the treatment of homosexuality as a mental illness. Read more via TImes of Israel

 
"The prohibition law on conversion treatments has passed in Tromit - but the road is still long
We welcome the passage of the law prohibiting ′′ conversion treatments ′′ in tromic reading. There's a long way until the law passes, and there are places where it's lacking - for example the fact that it only prohibits psychologists from being conversion therapists - and not rabbis and religious people, who are usually used as therapists. And still - it's a law to save lives. ′′ Conversion treatments ′′ have been proven to be ineffective and destructive, and are banned in many countries of the world. We hope that the Knesset will approve the law later in a second and third reading, and that we will not continue to be part of the dubious club of the countries that will destroy this criminal act."