A New Era In Israeli Civil Rights? Hardly

In what would appear at first blush to be a major move forward for civil rights in Israel, a new law approving civil marriages goes into effect today.  Ah, but there’s a catch.  It only applies to those who are, loosely translated, “lacking any religion.”  And only if they want to marry each other.

I lack religion but, alas, I would not be considered as such in Israel.  This classification is reserved for those who are of Jewish heritage on their father’s side alone.  Since they cannot legally marry someone who is Jewish according to Halacha, they are basically left with only each other.

Israel, in complete violation of the civil rights of its citizenry, requires that marriage is subject to the rules of the national Rabbinate.  Yair Rotkowitz, a founder of the website T’kasim, which provides unrecognized secular Jewish ceremonies, write about this in today’s Yediot Achronot:

There is no democracy in the world in which the nation’s law forces a religious identity upon someone in order to be married.  This stands in complete contradiction to a basic human right as expressed in both the French and American declarations of human rights, as well as the founding document of the United Nations.  Without a constitution which includes this basic right, no state should be permitted to call itself “democratic.”  Thus does Israel once again define itself not as a democracy, but as a theocracy.

Fortunately, the Israel Supreme Court has carved out a work-around in the form of common-law marriage.  This has become an extremely popular alternative for Israelis of all non-Orthodox backgrounds and same-sex couples, too.

Meanwhile, this new law will require individuals to prove to the Rabbinate that they’re not halachically Jewish, so the hands of the theocrats will still be mixing in.  There are about 300,000 Jews, as defined by “nationality,” who fall into this category.  It is estimated that this law will help a whopping 300 of them each year.