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17 Adar I 5760 - February 23, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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News
Knesset Criticizes Interior Minister's Permission for Consular Marriages

by E. Rauchberger and B. Kahn

Sharp criticism was directed in the Knesset plenum last week against Minister of the Interior Natan Sharansky, in the wake of his decision to enable foreign consulates in Israel to register couples for civil marriages. Many Knesset members -- including non-religious ones -- sharply criticized his decision and demanded that it be rescinded. The UTJ representatives sharply condemned the decision and its implications, and told Sharansky that he had failed to weigh the matter sufficiently and, as a result, the decision should be canceled immediately.

In a response to a series of proposals on the agenda regarding his decision, Sharansky said: "The decision to enable foreign consulates to register marriages depends upon three conditions: 1) One of the parties to the marriage must be non-Jewish; 2) One of them must be a citizen of the country in whose consulate the marriage is being registered; 3) That country must have laws which enable the registration of marriages in its consulates. It is said that the main consulates involved are those of Russia, Brazil, Greece and Cypress. The Russian consulate was said at one time to have earned significant fees from marriages.

Sharansky claimed that the High Court had decided in 1993 to enable foreign consulates to register marriages in a case involving a marriage in the Brazilian consulate, and had obligated the Ministry of the Interior to record and recognize these marriages. Since then, every civil marriage taking place in foreign consulates in Israel is recognized by the Ministry of the Interior. However, a year later, during the period of the Labor-Meretz Government, the Ministry asked foreign consulates not to conduct marriage registrations. After much misgivings, and after an additional year had passed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked the consulates not to register marriages. The consulates generally complied with this request.

Sharansky claimed that today, many couples who can not be married in Israel travel abroad to be married and that he believes that soon the High Court will obligate the State to subsidize their air fares.

Rabbonim and communal leaders reacted sharply to Sharansky's remarks, saying that instead of trying to prevent intermarriages, Minister Sharansky, who defines himself as a traditional Jew, is helping such couples marry. "As long as the High Court has yet to reach a decision on this issue, it is forbidden for the Minster of the Interior to try to find solutions which will result in intermarriage," they said. They then added that one is forbidden to remain silent about this grave decision. "He has made a one-sided decision without consulting the chareidi representatives in the Knesset nor bringing it to a vote in the Knesset or its committees. The recent manner in which the Minister of the Interior has been making decisions raises concern about whether it is possible to negotiate with him," they said. Last week, Rabbi Gafni said that UTJ would have to weigh its steps in the wake of Sharansky's extremist course of action on this issue.

At a stormy meeting held last week in the Religious Lobby of the Knesset attended by Minster Sharansky, all of the religious representatives asked him to retract his decision. At the meeting, the chairman of the Lobby, Rabbi Shmuel Halpert, asked the Minister of the Interior to cancel his letter to the Attorney General in which he seeks to permit consular marriage registration between Israeli citizens and non-Jewish foreigners. "There is no doubt that such a step will lead to civil marriage and intermarriage; to the undermining of the status quo and a rift in the Jewish Nation," he stressed.

Minister Sharansky said that he is trying to change the Law of Return in particular the clauses dealing with the grandchildren of Jews who are not themselves Jewish. Efforts are being made, he said, to prevent the forging of affidavits attesting to original Jewish identity by arranging for the opening of Russian government census records, facilitating verification of these affidavits, and coordinating between the liaison offices, the Ministry of the Interior and the Israeli Police.

Religious Affairs Minister Yitzchok Cohen said: "We hope that the Minister of the Interior is acting in good faith. But we must remind him that the registration of consular marriages is illegal." Rabbi Moshe Gafni informed Sharansky of the seriousness of the matter, and noted that it undermines the delicate fabric of the relationships between the religious and the secular on the issue of matrimony.

Nissim Zeev raised practical proposals on the issue. Rabbi Yaakov Litzman asked why contracts signed in consulates are not recognized in the area of income tax law, while in respect to marriage laws consulates are recognized as foreign territory.

MK Zevulun Orlev exhorted the Minister for not having consulted the religious delegates in the Knesset prior to making his decision. Sharansky replied that the discussions in the Religious Lobby had sharpened and deepened his understanding of the topic of the Law of Return and the Law of Marriage Registration. He promised not to undermine the status quo, and proposed that the Religious Lobby try to find a solution to the issues on the agenda of the High Court concerning marriage and the Law of Return.

Yigal Yehudi, head of Shai, an organization for the preservation of the Jewish character of the country, said that Sharansky is consistently realizing his aspirations to increase non-Jewish immigration while deepening assimilation and intermarriage. Yehudi says that the decisions of the Ministry of the Interior underscore the importance of the guidelines of maranan verabonon to maintain genealogical records, and that we have no choice but to urgently implement these guidelines urgently.


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