Israeli homosexuals who recently tied the knot in Canada are demanding that the Interior Ministry acknowledge their marital status.
The fact that we are a same-sex couple is irrelevant, they said.
Jonathan Herland, 29, and Ayal Wallrouch, 26, met three years ago and have been living together in Tel Aviv ever since.
'Second class citizens'
Last July the two got hitched in Canada, where same-sex marriages are allowed.
In October they turned to the Interior Ministry and asked that it register them as a married couple and change their individual status from “Single” to “Married,” but the ministry informed them that , “According to Interior Ministry rules and regulations, we do not register couples of the same sex.”
The couple refused to accept the answer, and on Tuesday Herland and Wallrouch's attorney Onn Anthony Stock proceeded to file an appeal with the High Court demanding that the Interior Ministry acknowledge their new status.
“We are not asking for any privilege that is not offered routinely to every other Israeli who gets married overseas,” Herland said.
“Any discrimination pertaining to our registration as a married couple is false and stems from prejudice and homophobia; it turns us into second class citizens.”
According to the couple, apart from the mental and social distress they have suffered from, the Interior Ministry’s decision has resulted in significant financial losses, as they are not eligible for the rights and benefits granted to married couples.
“We want to live in personal and domestic security, so if God forbid one of us dies, the other will be entitled to all the rights and benefits offered to widowers,” Wallrouch said.
Notably, a similar appeal was filed with the High Court seven months ago by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel on behalf of two other same-sex couples from Tel Aviv.