Party Chairman Avigdor Lieberman
Photo: Reuters
Sofa Landver. Personal reasons
Photo: Alex Kolomoysky
Yisrael Beiteinu ministers absent from vote on civil marriage bill
Ministers are no-shows despite party's promotion of right to marry without religious license in campaign
Yisrael Beiteinu's ministers were absent from a vote on a civil marriage bill Sunday, despite having promoted the issue as one of the cornerstones of their campaign for office.
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation rejected the bill, proposed by MK Shlomo Molla (Kadima), in the absence of Yisrael Beiteinu's ministers.
If passed, the bill would have allowed citizens of Israel to marry without obtaining a religious license. It describes in detail all of the steps required in order to obtain a civil marriage license, including the legal procedures involved.
A similar bill was rejected by the previous Knesset, but Yisrael Beiteinu's claim was that their proposal differed from its predecessor in that it was initiated by a party MK, David Rotem, who had obtained signatures from all of its members.
Following the vote Molla told Ynet, "Yisrael Beiteinu's true face has finally been exposed. The party's representatives have been revealed as opportunists who betray their voters the first chance they get."
Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver's office stated she had not been able to make it to the vote "due to personal reasons". A statement from Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov's office said he had been busy attending meetings, and Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch's office had no comment.
