Amir Ohana: Gay Speaker of the Knesset Who Threatens Arabs and Suggests a Palestinian State in Europe

“This is a message to the entire Middle East,” wrote Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana in a post on X, where he uploaded a video of “Israel’s” aggression on Doha targeting the leaders of the Palestinian Resistance Movement (Hamas). The post unleashed widespread anger across the Arab world and once again cast the controversial politician into the spotlight.

On September 9, 2025, the Israeli Occupation launched an attack in Doha targeting residential compounds of senior Hamas political bureau members. Hamas confirmed its top leaders survived the cowardly assassination attempt.

But the attack on the Gulf state, which plays a key role as a mediator in the Gaza ceasefire, killed Jihad Lubbad, chief of staff to Hamas leader in the Strip and senior negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, along with al-Hayya’s son, Hammam, and several aides.

Amir Ohana

Amir Ohana of the right-wing Likud party has served as Speaker of “Israel’s” 25th Knesset since December 2022. He previously held the posts of Justice Minister in 2019 and Public Security Minister in 2020.

Born in 1976 in Be’er Sheva to Moroccan-Jewish parents, his mother from Ouezzane, and his father from Marrakesh, Ohana grew up in southern Israeli Occupation before settling in Tel Aviv. His parents had lived in Rabat before migrating to “Israel” in the 1950s. In a 2015 Knesset speech, he described himself simply, “I am here as the son of Meir and Esther Ohana, who emigrated from Morocco to build a country. I am here with my other half, Alon, my true love.”

Ohana is the first openly gay Speaker of the Knesset; he lives with another man, and they have adopted twins, and his election to the position has drawn sharp criticism from rabbis and ultra-Orthodox officials who refuse to shake his hand.

A law graduate, Ohana trained in the Justice Ministry, worked in the state prosecution service, and spent a decade as a criminal lawyer. His military career spanned 1994 to 1997, including roles in the Military Police as an investigator, instructor, and base commander, before moving to “Israel’s” domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet. He continues to serve as a reserve captain.

He heads the so-called “Pride Group,” established in 2011 within the Likud party under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to advocate for homosexual rights.

Ohana also serves on the board of “Tadmor,” a Likud-affiliated nationalist group known as “Land of Israel,” and is a member of the party’s liberal youth forum, “Manof.”

He was first elected to the Knesset for the Likud bloc in December 2015 and has served on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Knesset Committee, and several others.

He has also headed Israel’s firearms policy lobbying group, served on the medical cannabis advocacy team, and co-chaired the Israeli-Japanese parliamentary friendship group.

His tenure has not been without controversy. In 2021, Ohana’s name, along with three other officials including Netanyahu, was linked to responsibility for the stampede of Israeli worshippers on Mount Meron in the north of the occupied territories, which killed 45 people while he was serving as Public Security Minister, though no recommendation was made to hold him accountable.

Hostile Attitudes

Amir Ohana has recently sharpened his attacks on Western countries weighing recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September 2025.

On July 30, he declared that recognizing Palestine after October 7, 2023, would amount to rewarding “terrorism.” Addressing the World Conference of Speakers of Parliament in Geneva, he claimed such moves would not bring coexistence but “more violence” against Israelis and Jews.

Ohana lashed out at Europe in particular. “If you want a Palestinian state, build it in London or Paris,” he said, a line he repeated weeks later. He warned that peace initiatives pushed by European governments could instead ignite new wars.

In an August 14 interview with U.S. channel Newsmax, Ohana strongly backed “Israel’s” decision to occupy Gaza City, dismissing critics in the Knesset. He said there is no alternative, framing the occupation as the only way to destroy Hamas and secure the Israeli Occupation.

He went further, embracing U.S. president Donald Trump’s February 2025 proposal to forcibly relocate Palestinians out of Gaza. Ohana praised it as a “new vision for peace,” describing Trump as someone who thinks outside the box despite global condemnation of the plan.

Beyond the Palestinian issue, Ohana has positioned himself as a champion of “Israel’s” normalization drive with the Muslim world. In April 2025, he became the first Knesset Speaker to visit Kazakhstan, meeting President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to push trade and economic ties with the ninth-largest Muslim-majority nation.

Two years earlier, in 2023, he paid a high-profile visit to Rabat, hailing it as “historic” given his Moroccan-born parents and Morocco’s decision to normalize relations with the Israeli Occupation in 2020.

Reactions

Ohana’s claim that bombing Qatar was a “message to the entire Middle East” triggered a storm of outrage, with critics blasting the muted response from Arab governments. Calls mounted for concrete action against the Israeli Occupation rather than the usual statements of condemnation.

The backlash grew sharper as many recalled that Ohana had used the exact same phrase after “Israel’s” July 20, 2024, aggression on Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah. That attack came in response to Houthi operations against “Israel” and shipping routes, part of a campaign waged in solidarity with Gaza, which has faced nearly two years of Israeli genocide.

Palestinian writer Saleh Abu Izzah slammed Ohana on X, calling the post a message to the normalizers and those who believe in peace with “Israel.” He warned that the Israeli Occupation intends to dominate them and “rule over you under the slipper,” and he praised the resistors who refused to bend, saying, “Blessed are those who said no.”

Yemeni journalist Tawfieq Ahmed said the message behind the aggression is clear: the Israeli Occupation targets the entire Arab nation, not just a single state.

Political analyst Yaseen Izeddeen argued that by saying “Middle East,” Ohana was in fact targeting Arab states, noting, “They do not recognize us as an Arab nation, so they reduce us to colonial geographic labels.”

Ohana, an openly gay politician living with a male partner, represents “a double humiliation” when issuing threats to the Arab world.

Scholar Ahmad Dadoush slammed the Knesset Speaker, saying, “The head of the war criminals’ parliament is sending a message to all the region’s leaders, as if to tell us: unite.”

“The battle is not just Gaza and the Resistance; it is the entire Middle East and this whole nation,” Saudi activist Nasser Awad emphasized.

“The Zionist assault on Doha follows their rampage in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria. This is a message to the entire region: either submit or be exposed,” political analyst Yasser Zaatreh posted.

“Do Arab regimes understand the warning, or will they keep burying their heads in the sand, chasing false political solutions? We wait, despite pessimism, but we rely on the people to fill the gap.”