A day after a Channel 13 investigation into psychologist Hila Mordechai, MK Yorai Lahav-Hertzanu filed a formal complaint on Thursday with the Health Ministry’s psychologists’ complaints committee, asking it to open disciplinary proceedings and consider suspending her license. The complaint follows allegations that Mordechai, whom the Education Ministry had chosen to advise on revising a pioneering guideline meant to protect LGBTQ students, steered parents toward conversion therapy and rejected gender identity.
Lahav-Hertzanu said Mordechai’s conduct conflicts with the Health Ministry’s position and the Psychologists’ Association, which prohibit conversion therapy because it lacks scientific basis and can cause severe harm, including anxiety, depression and suicidal behavior. He wrote that a licensed psychologist cannot replace professional standards with “dark ideological views” or send minors to “barbaric” practices, and warned that her conduct could have placed teenagers in real danger. He urged the committee to launch a broad review and use all powers available, including disciplinary charges.
The investigation showed Mordechai meeting undercover reporters posing as parents of a 14-year-old boy with gender dysphoria. She told them that when the issue appears in adolescence, “the vast majority of cases” pass, and described gender identity as a temporary symptom, “like fever.” She advised the parents not to cooperate with their child’s feelings, telling them, “We need to say clear things, that he is a boy and that is not something that can change.” She also referred them to figures associated with opposition to the LGBTQ community, including Rabbi Yigal Levinstein and Dr. Tal Kroiter.
The case comes as the Education Ministry is reviewing the document against the backdrop of an Igiy report for 2024 showing fewer LGBTQ students coming out to school staff, 11% compared with 21% in 2016, alongside more reports of verbal abuse and anti-LGBTQ remarks from educators. More than a quarter of LGBTQ students reported feeling unsafe at school. Mordechai said the report presented a deliberately distorted picture and that her work is based on clinical and professional standards. The Education Ministry did not respond. Naama Lazimi, Mor Nehari of Hoshen, and Igiy all condemned the ministry’s handling of the issue and its reliance on Mordechai.
