This week it was reported that Religious Services minister Matan Kahana is considering legislation that will allow civil marriages to take place in Foreign Consulates in Israel. However, he is demanding that as compensation for this (some say) dramatic gesture, the coalition will agree to amend the Law of Return and repel the so-called grandchild clause.
While this appears to be indeed revolutionary, a further look into the proposal and the two laws that are involved indicates that this is not much more than politics and not very clean politics at that.
Let’s look at the two proposals as they stand now.
Civil marriage in Israel does not exist. Each couple must marry within its own religious background and when the couple happens to be of different backgrounds they simply cannot marry. A Jew cannot marry an Arab (or any other non-Jew for that matter) and Jews can only marry in orthodox ceremonies if they want to be recognized by the State as married.
Mixed couples have for years travelled abroad in order to get married in a civil ceremony (which is recognized by the State) and Cyprus has always been a favorite destination for couples to get married if in Israel they are not allowed to. A civil wedding has been discussed for years in Israel but all this time the (Orthodox) Jewish establishment has prevented it. (Apparently out of fear that many Jewish couples would also choose a civil ceremony so as to escape the orthodox coercion). Today there are half a million Israelis who arrived in this country legally or were even borne here, who cannot get married because they are considered not Jewish by the religious establishment. So now the government would propose that civil marriages will be allowed to be performed in foreign consulates in Israel? The only thing that this would change is that couples do not need to travel abroad any longer (even though Consulates and Embassies are of course considered “abroad”) and can have some ceremony here at home and have their family and friends present. Within the framework of the whole complex issue of civil marriage this appears to be a rather cosmetic change and nothing will change for these couples. Of course the symbolism of having civil marriages performed in Israel should not be underestimated but in practical terms very little will change. This will of course not prevent the religious establishment from protesting in every way and form against the “dismantling of the Jewish State”, and maybe this is nevertheless a worrisome development for them as it may be seen and expected to be the first step towards an accepted and “normal” civil marriage system in Israel. And with so many Israelis who are not eligible to get married in Israel today ,this is a point of hope.
And that is where the “compensation” for Matan Kahana comes in. The amendment of the Law of Return has one purpose only: to limit the entry into Israel of people who are not Jewish according to Orthodox rules. Originally, the Law of Return was meant to allow all Jews to enter and live in Israel to make this country “the home of the Jews”. Of course, the rulings of the Law quickly ran into trouble because of the question that has occupied Israel and to which no clear answer has ever been given, certainly not a universal answer: Who is a Jew?
The law of Return defined anyone with a Jewish parent as eligible under the law, while Orthodox Judaism classifies as a Jew only a person whose mother was Jewish. As a result, many people entered Israel under the rights of the Law of Return, but are not considered Jewish by the religious establishment, not are their children. In 1970 the law was amended to allow a grandchild of a Jewish person to immigrate to Israel, which only increased the number of people considered not Jewish by the establishment. So revoking the “grandchild” clause would reduce the number of people eligible to come to Israel significantly and reduce the number of “non-Jews” who would require at some point the civil marriage procedure because the religious establishment will not allow them to marry otherwise.
It is impossible to escape the cynicism behind this barter game by the politicians involved in this episode and it clearly is an attempt to “purify” the Israeli population and reduce the number of non-Jews that want to settle here. Apparently the symbolic civil marriage on Consulate premises is worth this overall effort.
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