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World Jewish News
Civil marriage for all
01.03.2009
The bill to be presented this week by new MK Nitzan Horowitz of New Movement-Meretz is a worthy response to the coalition agreement apparently being drafted and which deals with "civil partnership." Such partnerships, which have been proposed by Avigdor Lieberman and on which Shas and Likud have yet to form an opinion, are couched under the guise of a civil arrangement. But in practice, they are nothing but a shrewdly crafted maneuver within the narrow boundaries of Orthodox hegemony, one that enhances the control of the rabbinate over marital unions in Israel.
From the outset, Lieberman set his sights on solving a serious problem that irks a large segment of the Israeli public. These are people whom the rabbinate does not recognize as Jews according to religious law, either because they really are not Jewish or because they failed to provide adequate documentation. Either way, these people run into a stone wall when seeking to wed, and the religious judges refuse to register them as married.
Given that most people who have been denied a chance to officially marry immigrated from the former Soviet Union, Lieberman is trying to solve their problem. He views them as a target constituency. But his version of civil partnership is limited to them. Their registered status will receive a special "civil partnership" stipulation on condition they prove they are "disqualified from marriage." This, in practice, will strengthen the power of the rabbinate. In addition, the rabbinate will maintain exclusive authority to grant divorce, so in this instance marriage and "civil partnership" bear no similarity.
Horowitz's proposal, on the other hand, represents the purely civilian-liberal thought process in the spirit of the philosophy represented by Shulamit Aloni's Ratz movement, a forerunner of Meretz. Horowitz proposes civil marriage for all, irrespective of religion, race or sex, including same-sex couples. This is a far-reaching proposal, and it is doubtful whether he will muster the necessary majority for its passage. But it represents a legitimate civil demand. The State of Israel indeed recognized the separate status of same-sex couples and equated it to that of married couples, yet this too is a spur-of-the-moment solution that submissively yields to the Orthodox hegemony.
The right to wed and start a family is, by law, a basic right, and Horowitz, who seeks to bestow that right upon every person, not just those denied by the rabbinate, deserves praise for waging a struggle to attain this right.
Источник: Haaretz
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