Last update - 00:00 11/09/2006
Court: Rabbinical courts can only rule in Jews' divorce cases
By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent
Rabbinical courts only have the authority to rule in Jews' divorce cases, outgoing Supreme Court President Aharon Barak decided Monday.
Barak wrote that the rabbinical courts do not have the authority to hear divorce cases in which the two parties are not of the same religion.
In the past, a number of mixed marriage couples from the former Soviet Union requested that the rabbinical courts annul their marriages. Following an appeal, the practice was halted in 1998, and it will now be abolished.
Barak determined that, "The authority of all religious courts is conditioned on the fact that those involved be affiliated with the court's religion. The unique juridical authority that the rabbinical courts have is conditioned on the fact that both parties are Jewish." If one of the sides is not Jewish, "the court does not have the authority to rule," Barak wrote.
Barak stated that the authority to rule in cases in which the two parties are not of the same religion would go to the Family Court, claiming that transferring the cases to rabbinical courts would create a "parallel and evasive route" that would "disrupt the division of authority."