A bill that would for the first time permit a form of civil marriage in Israel is due to be discussed by the Knesset Constitution Committee Tuesday. But ahead of the debate, critics are saying that the proposed legislation to permit so-called couplehood unions will not provide a solution for hundreds of thousands of people who cannot marry through the rabbinate.
The bill, prepared by the Justice Ministry in line with the Likud's coalition agreement with Yisrael Beiteinu, would permit the unions only for people not listed as members of any religion.
Human rights groups, women's organizations, and representatives of the Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism maintain that the bill will address the dilemma for only a few dozen couples. Human rights groups note that an interfaith couple, or one in which only one partner had no religion, would still not be allowed to marry under the law.
The director-general of the Movement for Progressive Judaism, Reform Rabbi Gilad Kariv, said that the bill provides a shaky solution to an extremely small group, at the cost of strengthening the Orthodox rabbinical establishment's hold on the Jewish public in general, and the immigrant population in particular.
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