Prime Minister Ariel Sharon set up a team last week headed by
Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin to evaluate various
solutions--including legislative reform--to the problem of
listing Reform and Conservative converts as Jews based on the
recent High Court decision.
At the meeting attended by Rivlin, Internal Affairs Minister
Eli Yishai and Knesset House Committee Chairman Rabbi Moshe
Gafni, Sharon announced that setting up the problem-solving
team, which includes representatives from every party in the
coalition, is in accordance with the coalition agreement
signed by United Torah Jewry and is consistent with the
government foundation agreement.
The special team was designated just one day after the
Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee decided to
delete the "Nationality" line on national identification
cards, though the decision is to take effect only 40 days
later.
The same day Attorney General Eliakim Rubinstein instructed
Yishai to begin listing Reform and Conservative converts as
Jews in the population registry immediately.
The Attorney General's firm order, transmitted to the
Internal Affairs Minister via Attorney Osnat Mendel, head of
the Justice Ministry's High Courts Department, was sent just
days before deliberations on a High Court petition by Reform
and Conservative converts alleging that Yishai was in
contempt of court by issuing instructions to list goyim who
undergo Reform or Conservative conversions to be listed as
Jews "according to the High Court ruling."
Following the Attorney General's order the Internal Affairs
Minister issued a special announcement stating that he had
instructed Population Administration Director Herzl Gedz not
to register the petitioners until after the High Court
deliberations scheduled to take place a few days later, but
according to the Attorney General, Gedz listed them as Jews
despite the Minister's instructions.
In the announcement Yishai states, "In light of the High
Court ruling that registration is merely a technical and
statistical matter, I believe that in addition to the fact
that, despite the High Court ruling, the question of
registration could divide the Jewish people, as a public
official I have the responsibility to find a solution
amenable to all concerned parties. Such a solution was indeed
achieved through an impressive majority in the Constitution,
Law and Justice Committee. In similar cases, when other
questions of great public impact were on the agenda, the
[High] Court and certainly the Attorney General did not
hesitate to grant an extended stay in order to adjust the
legal situation to fit the new ruling."
