Jerusalem (CNN) An Israeli Cabinet minister has sparked outrage from politicians, medical professionals and the country's gay community by suggesting conversion therapy "is possible" and saying he "did it" in the past.

Israel's Channel 12 News asked Education Minister Rafi Peretz, if he believed it was possible to "convert" people who believed they were gay.

"I think it is possible," he replied. "I have to tell you that I have a very deep understanding of education and I have done this."

Peretz, who is leader of the religious Union of Right Wing Parties which is in coalition with Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party, was then asked what advice he would give to a student who said he had homosexual tendencies.

"First of all I hugged him," he said. "I said very warm things. I said to him 'let's think, let's learn, let's contemplate.'

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