TEL AVIV — Prime Minister-to-be Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to issue last week reassuring messages to members of the LGBTQ communities in Israel. An unnamed associate of his said that these members would enjoy the same rights they have had until now, including the right to hold annual gay pride parades.

Netanyahu was responding to comments by the chair of the homophobic Noam party Avi Maoz, soon to be a member of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition. Shortly after the elections, Maoz said in several interviews that his party would examine legal options for canceling the gay pride parades. “We will start with Jerusalem. After that, we will see about Tel Aviv,” he told one interviewer.

Noam, a tiny party located at the extreme religious end of the spectrum, espouses so-called family values. Its spiritual leader, Rabbi Zvi Tau, has labeled members of the LGBTQ communities as “deviants” and “miserable people.” Maoz had obtained an entree into the Knesset as part of a far-right alliance.

Maoz’s comments raised concerns among Israel’s gay community, intensified by the ultra-religious and ultranationalist makeup of the 6th Netanyahu government in which his right-wing Likud party is the most moderate component.