WUNRN
ISRAEL - CALL FOR THE RIGHT TO CIVIL
MARRIAGE FOR ALL CITIZENS OF ISRAEL
The
dozens of Israeli couples who married about two weeks ago in a mass ceremony in
the city square of Larnaca, Cyprus, didn't do so in order to break the Guinness
record for mass weddings. They were forced to take part in this expensive
procedure, far from home and family, because in Israel, there was no way they
could have a civil wedding.
The United Nations has issued a report on
implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women, which Gili Cohen (Haaretz, July 5 ) noted was
handed to the government authorities here in February of this year. The UN is
not interested in the coalition arrangements of successive Israeli governments.
Like an earlier report that examined trafficking in human beings, this report
deals particularly with the blatant undermining of women and their status.
Although Israel likes to boast that it is
"the only democracy in the Middle East," and signed the convention
requiring it to ensure equal rights for women in marriage and family
relationships, it is ranked, according to Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, who
heads Bar-Ilan University's Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women's
Status, "in a bad place in the middle," and Israel, in effect, stands
"among the countries of the developing world and the Muslim world."
The continuing abandonment of the areas of
marital relationships and family to the control of the Orthodox establishment
is not the legacy of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alone,
but during his tenure there has been a worrisome worsening of the situation:
The Haredization and radicalization of the rabbinical establishment have led to
a situation where the status of women - on issues of marriage, property rights,
child custody and, above all, divorce - is swiftly deteriorating. The
thundering silence of Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman in light of the
reactionary norms that have taken over in the rabbinical courts and the ease
with which the government has been expanding the powers of the rabbis have only
exacerbated the situation.
Although the government has made several attempts
to promote limited legislation for civil marriage for those "ineligible
for marriage," this initiative is the product of a political effort to
conciliate a small group among immigrants from the Commonwealth of Independent
States, and has nothing to do with the principle of equality. The right to
marry and to start a family is a basic civil right, as is a woman's right to
equality in all areas of life. If Israel is still interested in being
considered an open society and a progressive country, it must implement the
recommendations of the UN commission, and enable all of its citizens to marry,
divorce and live equally.
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Full Article: http://forward.com/articles/143827/
ISRAEL - SURVEY - CIVIL &
NON-ORTHODOX JEWISH MARRIAGES SHOULD BE OFFICIAL IN ISRAEL
By JTA - October 4, 2011
Jerusalem
— Some 62 percent of Jewish Israelis
believe that civil and non-Orthodox marriages should be recognized in their
country, a new survey has found. The Israel Religion and State Index 2011
conducted for the Hiddush – Freedom of Religion in Israel, Inc. organization,
also found that 61 percent of the Jewish public supports equal recognition of
conversions of all streams of Judaism......
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ISRAEL - REJECTION OF CIVIL MARRIAGE
PROPOSAL
JERUSALEM, July 27,
2011 (UPI) -- Israel's Parliament maintained the religious monopoly on
marriage rejecting a civil alternative.
"Israel is the only
democracy in the world where Jews don't have freedom of religion," said
leftist member Nitzan Horowitz, a sponsor of the measure. "There are
currently hundreds of thousands of Israelis who are considered without religion
and cannot marry in Israel."
But Justice Minister
Yaacov Neeman said the bill violated "the norm in Israel since the
establishment of the state," which placed marriage and divorce for Jews
under Jewish religious law.
Neeman warned that if people
married under Jewish law were allowed to divorce without a rabbinical court,
the wives would become unable to remarry and the children bastards.
"This bill is an
offense to the unity of the Jewish people," he said.
Centrist member Orit
Zuaretz spoke wearing a white wedding dress but was forced to remove her veil.
"This bill isn't
against anything, rather aimed at expanding the current arrangement, alongside
Judaism, to those who cannot marry according to Jewish law. Some 3,500 Israelis
marry in Cyprus each year; we need an alternative," she said.
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