Lapid slams 'despicable and cowardly' attack

Far-right provocateurs hurl homophobic abuse at gay secularist activist in Tel Aviv

Group led by government-aligned Mordechai David trails Naor Narkis and partner, calling them ‘f*ggot’ and ‘tranny’; gang also said to yell the pair is ‘sick with AIDS’

A group of right-wing activists including Mordechai David, a prominent provocateur aligned with senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, who regularly harasses critics of the government, targeted a secularist activist and his partner with homophobic abuse on Saturday night.

Naor Narkis, who has gained notoriety for his anti-religious advocacy in ultra-Orthodox communities, was verbally assaulted in Tel Aviv by the group that shouted “f*ggot” and “tranny” as he and his male partner entered the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.

The group filmed the couple and tried to block them as they walked.

David and his associates then followed Narkis and his partner into a movie theater at the Cinematheque, even as staff said the right-wing activists could not enter without tickets.

The activists lingered in the theater, with some of them even taking seats, until security escorted them out.

Narkis and his partner said the right-wing group also made crude references to the couple’s sex life and yelled that the two men were “sick with AIDS.”

“Police who were on the scene did nothing,” Narkis wrote on Facebook, calling on openly gay Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, a member of Likud, to condemn the incident.

The Israel Police did not respond to a request for comment on Narkis’s accusation.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said Monday that being gay was not a slur.

“The attacks by Mordechai David and his gang on Naor Narkis, against the backdrop of his sexual orientation, are despicable and cowardly,” Lapid wrote on X

“I send strength to Naor and promise that in the next government we will continue to promote equality and solutions for the LGBTQ community, just as we did in [our previous] government,” said Lapid.

The Aguda LGBTQ umbrella group said in a statement that “to stop a person who is walking with his partner, threatening him, blocking his path and hurling anti-LGBTQ abuse at him… is a moral low point.”

The homophobic attack was “especially concerning given Mordechai David has long enjoyed the public embrace of lawmakers and ministers from the coalition, and has even been personally invited to events alongside senior law enforcement officials,” the Aguda said, adding that it has asked police chief Daniel Levy to probe the incident.

Narkis founded a movement in 2024 called Hozrim Betvuna (“Returning to Reason”) whose self-stated goal is to provide information to “help those who wish to leave the ultra-Orthodox world.” He has said he is considering a run in the primaries for The Democrats ahead of the elections later this year.

David has repeatedly harassed government critics and has received overt support from ministers.

Photos on social media showed him attending far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s birthday party earlier this month, alongside multiple senior law enforcement officials and politicians. Ben Gvir’s ministry is in charge of policing.

Last week David filmed himself harassing Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman, the head of the panel of judges in Netanyahu’s corruption trial, as she walked down the street.

In February, he blocked the car of former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak and filmed himself calling the 89-year-old Holocaust survivor the “Khamenei of our generation,” referring to Iran’s supreme leader.

He also blocked the car of former prime minister Ehud Barak.

Also in February, David led a mob in a number of protests at the home of Arab Israeli news anchor Lucy Aharish.

Aharish said that the activists were Netanyahu’s “goons” and warned in a monologue on her Channel 13 show that “the blood is on the hands of whoever was silent” if anything were to happen to her, her family or other journalists.