After searching through the coalition agreements between the Likud Party and Blue and White, Roll asked Ginzburg in the Knesset plenum:"what happened to all the promises we made to the LGBTQ community?"
"Eitan, look me in the eyes, you and I are gay fathers. We split the Red Sea in order to establish a family. You and I stood before parents of LGBTQ children and promised them that we would pass the surrogacy law," said Roll. He continued by asking: "How are you, out of all the people in the world, passing this law that will establish a corrupt government, which you know will vote against the surrogacy law in a second?"
"Is there already nothing sacred in the world? Is family not sacred?" asked Roll. "How do you go home after this and explain it your family?"
The MK stressed taht becoming a father was the most significant and difficult thing he had ever done in his life, adding that he knows Ginzburg feels exactly the same. "You stood on the podium at the Knesset plenum, crying, and talked about the struggle you went through. You stirred up an entire plenum. I'm talking to you as a father. There are no words to describe the struggles I went through to become a parent. You went through them too."
Roll added that there are "red lines" in politics that shouldn't be crossed. "I'm sorry we've gotten to this. I'm sorry for myself. I'm sorry for an entire public, a full community, that includes parents and grandparents and friends and colleagues and people who believe in the freedom of every citizen to establish a family. But more than anything, I'm sorry for you."
Roll is married to Israeli singer Harel Skaat and is one of a few LGBTQ members of the Knesset.
Surrogacy, especially for members of the LGBTQ+ community, was an especially hot topic in Israel in 2018, when protests and strikes swept the country after Netanyahu promised to support an amendment to a surrogacy law making gay couples eligible for state-supported surrogacy in Israel, but subsequently voted against the proposed amendment after haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties reportedly threatened to topple the government.
Currently, married heterosexual couples and single women are eligible for state-supported surrogacy. Single men and gay couples are not eligible.
The new government, which will be led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, passed its first test on Thursday when the first in a series of bills needed to facilitate building a coalition passed its preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum.
On Thursday night, Ginzburg was appointed as the head of the special committee that will discuss and prepare a Basic Law to allow for a rotation government between Netanyahu and Gantz.
Gill Hoffman contributed to this report.