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Last update - 00:00 18/07/2007
Government to support non-Jewish civil marriage law
By Jonathan Lis and Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondents

Couples not considered Jewish according to Jewish law will be able to tie the knot in a civil marriage, following a consensus on a bill reached Wednesday between Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar.

This is the first time that the religious establishment has given the go-ahead to a civil marriage and divorce procedure. However, the bill drafted by Friedmann and Amar, will be restricted to cases in which both spouses are not considered Jewish according to Jewish law (halakha).

The statement from the Justice Ministry said that these sorts of marriages would take place in a civil court and would be under family court jurisdiction.
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In return for the agreement, supported by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the Chief Rabbinate's conversion authorities will be increased. The rabbinical court will act to cement its jurisdiction over conversions through legislation.

Meretz Chairman MK Yossi Beilin called the bill a "deception which does not mean civil marriage, but [which] increases the isolation and discrimination against new immigrants who are not defined as Jews."

"Instead of letting them integrate into Israeli society, the initiative places them in a ghetto, further isolating them from society. For this miserable reform, the prime minister expanded the Chief Rabbinate's powers in conversion procedures," Beilin said.

IRAC said the initiative would only solve the problem of a small minority of Israelis defined as having no religion.

The existing law does not permit civil marriage in Israel. The Chief Rabbinate's monopoly on marriage and divorce since the state's establishment has forced new immigrants, who are not Jews according to the halakha, to marry overseas.

Some 264,000 people in Israel, most of them from the former Soviet Union, are not recognized as Jews according to the Israel Religious Action Center's figures.
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  1.   THIS DECISION-JUST ANOTHER CONCESSION TO MAKE ISRAEL NON-JEWISH)) 23:47  |  VOICE of MOSHIACH))) 18/07/07
  2.   COMMON LAW CAN BE APLIED IN RABBINIC COURT;NO NEED SECULAR COURTS 23:50  |  VOICE of MOSHIACH))) 18/07/07
  3.   How to sell another Apartheid law 00:03  |  Mandela 19/07/07
  4.   Response to #3, Fakedela 00:22  |  Ben 19/07/07
  5.   CIVIL MARRIAGES CAN BE PERFORMED IN"OCCUPIED" TERRITORIES,NO NEED 00:24  |  TO LEGALIZE THEM)))) 19/07/07
  6.   to Mandela 00:31  |  Sol 19/07/07
  7.   Blood debts will always be repaid in blood! 01:50  |  Hannah 19/07/07
  8.   Government to support non-Jewish civil marriage law 02:00  |  Darrien 19/07/07
  9.   Yup, it`s racist - own experience 04:36  |  Immigrant 19/07/07
  10.   To Sol 04:43  |  Immigrant 19/07/07
  11.   Non Jews should not be allowed to marry in Israel! 06:38  |  Miriam 19/07/07
  12.   to Miriam 09:08  |  Puhi 19/07/07
  13.   #9 "losing" documents in israel is not confined to 09:08  |  victor hardman 19/07/07
  14.   #7 hannah and the word zionist brings out the red mist 09:18  |  victor hardman 19/07/07
  15.   to Miriam 09:42  |  Puhi 19/07/07
  16.   Separate state and religion !! 09:59  |  Nicole 19/07/07
  17.   Miriam, I know conversed Jews who are more Jewish than 10:07  |  Nicole 19/07/07
  18.   #14, Victor 10:08  |  Hannah 19/07/07
  19.   Seems reasonable 10:44  |  Susan 19/07/07
  20.   learning little from Diaspora 11:25  |  Jonathan 19/07/07
  21.   To Anybody who Claims the Laws are Racist 16:06  |  Ben 19/07/07
  22.   Jonathan, recognize the miracle.God heard the cries and responded 20:23  |  Virginia 19/07/07
  23.   To Sol #6 06:52  |  Northern 21/07/09
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