Kadima chair: Issue crucial to party platform; bill to be put to Knesset before recess for elections.
By JPOST.COM STAFFLivni 224.88(photo credit: GPO)
Kadima intends to introduce a bill to legalize civil marriage in Israel, the faction's chairwoman Tzipi Livni announced late Wednesday night.
"I support civil marriage," she told Channel 9, Israel's Russian-language channel. "It's an important issue in Kadima's platform, and I want to bring it before the Knesset now, before the recess."
She called the issue "a matter of principle," and said that it would be part of Kadima's platform in the upcoming elections.
The bill would enable some 300,000 Israelis who are currently seen by the state as "without religious affiliation," and as such cannot be married by the Rabbinate, to get married in Israel. Many of the citizens with such status are Russian-Israelis.
Livni said that she planned to put the bill forward before the Knesset breaks for elections, despite the fact that it would be have little chance of passing. Just putting it forward, she said, would show where Kadima stands on the matter.
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