LGBT activists in Israel are calling for the resignation of Education Minister Rafi Peretz after he claimed gay conversion therapy could work. “I think it’s possible,” Peretz, an orthodox rabbi and leading force in the ultranationalist United Right alliance, told Israel’s Channel 12 on Saturday. “I can tell you that I have deep familiarity on the issue of education—and I have also done this [therapy].” Asked how he would approach someone who came out as gay, Peretz said “I would first of all embrace him, then I said let us think, let us learn, let us consider. The goal is that first of all he gets to know himself better and then he can decide.” Peretz, who was just appointed last month, added he was considering preventing representatives from the Israel Gay Youth movement from speaking at schools, depending on their “messaging.” Efforts to change sexual orientation have been widely discredited by medical organizations around the world, including the World Health Organization, England’s National Health Service and the American Medical Association.