In a precedent-setting decision, the Lod District Court ruled over the weekend that civil marriages held abroad in Zum, with the couple in Israel, will be registered as marriages in the Population Registry. Religion and state, and will no doubt also star in elections. Marriages in Israel are held only according to the religion of Moses and Israel or according to the traditions of other religions. .
To date, such couples have been forced to fly to another country, marry there and re-register in the population registry as a married couple.
Civil marriage should be accessible to all, and not just in times of plague or zoom.
By the time we get there, we will have to rely on the court to recognize all sorts of such detours.
The Labor Party will continue to fight for the right to religious freedom and freedom of religion in marriage, divorce, and freedom of movement on weekdays and Saturdays.
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- Merav Michaeli Merav Michaeli (@MeravMichaeli) July 10, 2022
The ruling of the Lod District Court significantly changes the situation in that it allows marriages to be zoomed out, hence. Technical, relating to the question of the authority of the Population Registrar to check where the couple is married.
But the court understood the context well. Therefore, among its arguments, it enumerates the right to equality, from which also derives the right of every couple, wherever it is, to marry without passing through Ben Gurion Airport.
By the way, this is not the first time this possibility has arisen.
In the midst of the corona knife, the population registrar also registered a "zoom marriage," but Aryeh Deri, who then served as interior minister, immediately rescinded the decision.
In general, adopting this policy on a regular basis can be of great benefit to all parties: religious-conservative and liberal.
On the religious-conservative side, the decision does not dramatically change the status quo in the value sense.
True, it makes it easier for couples to get married not through the rabbinate, but most couples who choose a civilian zoom marriage would not have stepped in the rabbinate anyway.
On the other hand, it takes a lot of air out of the interpretation of the struggle for civil marriage under the official auspices of the State of Israel, without paying the value price of recognizing them.
On the liberal side, the decision is far from satisfying the demand for recognition of civil marriage in Israel in its declarative and value aspects.
But civil marriage in Israeli territory, de facto, is an immediate and feasible solution for tens of thousands of couples who cannot or do not want to marry in the rabbinate, without having to leave the country for that purpose.
Although the decision will not change the way such couples should divorce, and they will still be forced to visit the rabbinical court, for those who choose a civil marriage it is still good news.
But the expectation that the decision will be applauded by Man Dhao is exaggerated.
In an all-pervading war here, and certainly during elections, practical decisions that reduce the flames are almost undesirable by the hawkish parties.
Therefore, it is easy to see how this issue will become another flag in the Jewish wars, which instead of uniting around a practical solution that everyone benefits from, will continue in the Israeli excavation war, until the polls and after.
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