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World Jewish News
Israel Beiteinu helps Knesset shoot down civil union bill
10.06.2009
Although civil unions were a central plank in the platforms of three out of the four largest parties during the last election campaign, many of the sponsors of the bill to promote civil marriage in Israel voted against the legislation in its preliminary reading on the Knesset floor Wednesday.
Israel Beiteinu and Labor both supported civil unions before joining the coalition - with Israel Beiteinu listing the issue among its five key conditions for joining any government.
However, the pressures of keeping a coalition together with Shas and United Torah Judaism - adamant opponents of the practice - have made civil union an issue non grata within the current government.
Several MKs from Labor and Israel Beiteinu actually voted against the bill, while others opted to steer clear of the deliberation.
Kadima reacted to the vote's result in a swift assault on Israel Beiteinu and its leader.
"Yet again we are shown that [Israel Beiteinu leader Avidgor] Lieberman's word is worthless," the largest opposition party said in a statement. "The union between Lieberman and Shas today buried another one of Lieberman's election promises, and his party proved that for himself and his party, rulership and holding a chair are more important than reliability."
"Israel Beiteinu's vote leaves hundreds of thousand of citizens who can't marry in a [Jewish] religious ceremony in the lurch, and cynically clarifies to them that [commitments] and political post-election reality are different entities," Livni's party continued.
"Kadima will continue to act for the promotion of the law in the future, as it committed to in its campaign," the statement concluded.
The bill was sponsored by MK Shlomo Molla and co-signed by fellow Kadima MKs Robert Tibayev, Yoel Hasson and Nahman Shai, who explained that "in Israel, marriage is exclusively religious. Many of Israel's citizens cannot marry through religious marriage, and this law creates a parallel course entailing parallel rights and responsibilities through which Israeli citizens who so desire can create a joint agreement that does not constitute marriage according to religious law."
The bill detailed the various aspects of the proposed civil unions - from its documentation to its disbanding at the hands of a court or a civil authority.
As late as mid-February, Israel Beiteinu stuck to its guns on the issue, but while Kadima announced that it was willing to meet the party's demand for civil unions if it joined a Kadima government, the Likud formed the government and the final coalition agreement with Israel Beiteinu only mentioned the concept in the context of people who cannot legally marry under religious law.
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND REBECCA ANNA STOIL
Источник: JPost.com
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