Ministers in the coronavirus cabinet have been discussing a sore subject. Health restrictions are preventing marriages from taking place with friends and family due to limits placed on the number of people allowed to congregate in any one location.
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, who is head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, lamented the difficulty it posed for young couples hoping to set up a Jewish home and demanded weddings be allowed to go ahead with up to 200 guests.
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An Israeli couple gets married without guests due to coronavirus restrictions
(Photo: Reuters)
The anguish is real, but the conversation ironic. Deri was directing his plea to Welfare Minister Itzik Shmuli, who cannot wed at any time because he is gay and Israeli law prevents him from marrying his partner.
In fact, Israel allows marriages to be held only under religious law, banning those who cannot or will not comply with the rabbis' demands from marrying.
There is no civil marriage or divorce in Israel, and the state continues to abide by legislation held over from the days of Ottoman rule over pre-state Palestine. This legislation is amenable to the rabbinic establishment because it ensures its continued power over the Jewish population.
Attempts to change the law, such as allowing civil marriage to be held by foreign governments on their embassy grounds, had been thwarted by religious political parties that have historically held the deciding vote in coalition governments.
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A lesbian couple holds a symbolic wedding ceremony after being denied the right to marry by the state
(Photo: Benny Deutch)
Long before the coronavirus pandemic reached our shores, hundreds of thousands of Israelis found themselves searching for options that included travel abroad or entering contractual co-habitation agreements just to validate their love and desire for family.
It has been and remains unacceptable that a person who is a citizen of the country, a productive and law-abiding member of society, still does not have the most basic right to marry here, at home, surrounded by family and friends gathered to witness the validation of love and the creation of family.
With or without COVID, gay couples are considered to be deviant in the eyes of the rabbinate and, despite a widespread acceptance by society, are still prevented from marrying.
The same goes for immigrant families who came to Israel from the former Soviet Union decades ago, who also cannot marry regardless of the coronavirus.
Despite being proud citizens, serving in the military and living full lives as Israelis, they are required to prove time and again that they are Jewish.
Many more are barred from marriage for an array of reasons, as the Rabbinate tramples over basic values of freedom, equality under the law, human rights and decency.
All are painfully aware of the sadness involved in being deprived of marriage surrounded by loved ones. To them it has been reality before the pandemic and will remain so long after the virus has left our shores.
Perhaps now, more in the Israeli public will feel, if only for a brief symbolic moment, what it means to be forbidden from holding a proper wedding. Perhaps legislating civil marriage could become a national cause, brought to the forefront by the coronavirus.
This could be an opportunity that we should not miss.
Katya Kupchick heads the Russian-speaking department of the New Family Organization