Gay rights activists yesterday fiercely criticized Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann for bowing to pressure by religious parties in his decision to redraft inheritance laws. The revised bill would preclude homosexual couples from inheritance laws that apply to people in common-law marriages.

"Since the beginning of his miserable term, the justice minister has been resolute to set Israel back 30 years," said Mike Hamel, chairman of the Israeli Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Association. The bill proposed by Friedmann contradicts the recommendations of a public commission (headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel) that was set up in 1999. Its purpose was to reform the 1965 inheritance law. The commission proposed, in the spring of 2006, to alter the law's definition of a couple from "husband and wife" so that it would apply to both gay and heterosexual couples.