Religion looks set to be a central issue in election campaign

Livni seeks civil marriage legalized; Netanyahu wants education portfolio in Likud's hands, not Shas's.

By MATTHEW WAGNER
livni 88 (photo credit: )
livni 88
(photo credit: )
Judging from this week, religion will be at the center of political spins and campaigning as the nation's parties gear up for February's elections. On Thursday, Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni drew fire after she promised to push forward with legislation that would enable approximately 300,000 Israelis who are not halachicly Jewish to marry. In a separate development, Kadima and Likud MKs ignored the recommendation of the Knesset legal adviser and gave in to haredi demands to shelve a bill that would have undermined the powers of the rabbinical courts responsible for all Jewish divorces. In a third incident this week, Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu publicly distanced his party from Shas, denying rumors that the two parties had reached a political alliance. On the same day that Shas Chairman Eli Yishai publicly announced he was interested in the education portfolio, Netanyahu made it clear that if it was up to him, the next education minister would come from the Likud. Livni's declarations about "civil unions," virulently opposed by all religious parties, were made in several Russian-language news media outlets. Immigrants from the former Soviet Union and their offspring are the hardest hit by the fact that marriage in Israel is governed solely by religious authorities. Only Israelis who belong to Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities are permitted to marry, and a Jew cannot marry a non-Jew. Those who don't belong to any religion, who cannot marry each other under the tenets of their religions, or who simply prefer a civil ceremony are forced to travel abroad to marry. In 2001, approximately 4,500 Israeli couples unable to marry in Israel did so abroad, according to Central Bureau of Statistics figures. So far the only solution offered by the religious establishment has been the "Noahide Union" (Brit Noah), supported by Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar. The Noahide Union would permit a non-Jewish man to marry a non-Jewish woman but, unlike the Livni-backed legislation, it wouldn't allow a non-Jew to marry a Jew. But Amar's proposal, which is opposed by members of the haredi rabbinic establishment as a dangerous precedent, was also rejected by secular parties as failing to answer the needs of tens of thousands of non-Jewish immigrants who want to marry Jews. On the same day that Livni vowed to advance a pro-secular agenda with civil marriages, members of her party caved in to haredi demands and shelved a bill that seeks to change the way rabbinic courts judge divorce cases. The bill, which is supported by some modern Orthodox parliamentarians, is aimed at expediting divorces and reducing the number of agunot - women who are "chained" to husbands who refuse to divorce them. The bill proposes separating the giving of the get, which finalizes the religious divorce and frees the woman to remarry, from the financial matters involved with divorce, such as alimony payments, the distribution of property and child support. According to the Rabbinical Courts' legal adviser, Shimon Ya'acobi, the rabbinic establishment opposes the bill because it might create situations in which the husband is be coerced into giving a get. Jewish law dictates that a get given under duress is invalid unless the rabbinic court has determined that husband is obligated to divorce. Shas was so opposed to the bill that it turned the vote on the bill into a no-confidence vote in the government. Civil marriages and reforms in the rabbinical courts are just two religion-state issues waiting to be decided by the next government. Other points of contention between religious and secular politicians include the writing of a constitution, which is adamantly opposed by haredi MKs, as well as reforms in various religious services, including conversions. How these issues are decided will likely depend on whether or not Shas and United Torah Judaism are included in the government coalition of the 18th Knesset.