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BARAK: CIVIL MARRIAGE A HUMAN RIGHT
by Hilary Leila Krieger and Dan Izenberg, Jerusalem Post, June 19, 2006
Supreme Court President Aharon Barak dropped a potential bombshell on Sunday
when he said Israelis are being deprived of their rights by being prohibited
from marrying in civil ceremonies.
Responding to questions from a delegation of US Conservative Jews, Barak said, "The
lack of civil marriage in Israel is a major violation of human rights." He
was referring to failed attempts by Israeli political leaders to legislate some
form of marriage or "civil union" for those who don't want or can't
have Orthodox weddings.
According to the law, all Israeli citizens must marry under the auspices of their
faith, and mixed marriages are not allowed. The religious courts in the Jewish
sector are controlled by the Orthodox stream.
During the term of the 16th Knesset a special committee was established by the
coalition government at the insistence of the now-defunct Shinui Party to address
the issue. However, the committee collapsed.
Shinui then drafted its own law to allow Israelis to be married in a non-religious
ceremony and, for couples who did so, to be accorded all the rights to those
married in religious ceremonies. Soon after, however, Shinui resigned from the
government and the initiative died.
Since then, the New Family organization headed by Irit Rosenblum, and attorney
Michael Corinaldi, have been pressing the High Court of Justice to hear petitions
paving the way for consuls of foreign embassies in Israel to marry couples if
one of them is a citizen of the foreign state.
Rosenblum has also indicated that New Family intended to petition the High Court
to order the Interior Ministry to register any Israeli couple united in a civil
ceremony as married.
On another subject, Barak explained that the Supreme Court is obliged to hear
all District Court decisions that are appealed. This, coupled with the fact that
the High Court hears most petitions from the public against the government, imposes
a heavy burden on the court of 15 justices.
He noted that the legislature has slightly changed the situation by allowing
certain petitions to be heard by the district courts.
In general, however, legislators "always complain" that the Supreme
Court has too much power but refuse to change the law so that it can reduce its
case load, he said.
Barak refused to answer some of the delegation's questions because they pertained
to matters currently under review by the court. These included the matter of
the fee being charged those coming to worship at the Conservative prayer site
located at the Western Wall's Robinson's Arch site. The Masorti (Conservative)
movement has petitioned the High Court of Justice against the NIS 30 fee collected
from each member of a Masorti minyan.
Robinson's Arch was allocated to the movement by the government for prayer services
in August 1999. The Masorti movement considers the fee discriminatory, since
worshipers visiting the gender-segregated section of the wall north of Robinson's
Arch are not charged.
The delegation was made up of representatives from Project ReConnect, a group
looking to improve ties among alumni of the movement's various programs.
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