A civil marriage bill tabled by Shinui was defeated 12 to 11
in a Knesset plenum session.
Minister Roni Bar-On, responding for the government, lodged
criticism against the former Shinui members, saying that
their defiant and provocative conduct actually defeated
efforts to reach a solution for Israelis who are ineligible
to marry one another according to halochoh (e.g. a Jew and a
non-Jew, chas vesholom). He said that according to
Kadima's platform if the party wins the government will pass
a law allowing civil marriage. "I will not allow 400,000
people to be denied their fundamental right to live as they
please," he said.
In response to a question by MK Ilan Shalgi (formerly of
Shinui) why the government does not begin seeking a solution
immediately, Bar-On said, "Because you defeat this. You
defeat it time after time. It won't go over by force. It
won't go over spitefully. It won't go over through defiance.
It will only go over with reason, with consensus."
Later Bar-On told the former Shinui MKs, "You only use
slogans and you too do not have the power to solve the
problem. It won't help. You can hold a concert here and
scream [as long as you want]. We will solve the problem. You
live only to pour fuel on the fire. We will solve this
problem."
MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni said the entire discussion was worthless
since in the current Knesset laws cannot be passed, even in
preliminary votes. Therefore clearly the only reason the
issue was being raised by the former Shinui MKs was for
election propaganda purposes. "They are not looking out for
pesulei chittun or [non-Jews] or civil marriage. They
are not looking out for anything other than their seats, and
therefore I have no response whatsoever to these
inconsequential remarks."
MK Yitzchak Cohen (Shas) said it was astonishing to see to
what a lowly level one could reach. "A party that the public
has already tossed out continues to waste millions of shekels
in public funds when they know they will not pass the minimum
cutoff in the next election. They continue to waste public
funds and to poison the public atmosphere. We are a Jewish
state and civil marriage cannot be. Go home."
