Jerusalem – the Knesset voted down a bill on Wednesday that would allow same-sex, as well as interfaith couples to wed.
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The legislation, by MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) opens the option of civil marriages for those who may not be wed according to halacha (Jewish law), as well as those who choose not to be married by the Chief Rabbinate. It was rejected, with 39 MKs opposed and 11 in favor.
Horowitz said there are tens of thousands of homosexual couples in Israel, and his law would help them and others who cannot exercise the basic right to be married and build a family.
“There is an extremist, dark institution deciding who may or may not get married,” the Meretz MK said. “The public is sick of the rabbinate.”
According to Horowitz, coalition parties betrayed their secular voters by rejecting the bill, choosing to pander to haredi (ultra-orthodox) parties, instead.
“Now, more than ever, it is clear to the public in Israel who is for a free society and who is for haredim,” he added.
After Horowtiz presented his bill, Justice Minister Yaacov Ne’eman gave a succinct rebuttal: “You did not bring your bill to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, so the government’s official stance is to oppose it. Thank you.”
Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On said she is not surprised by Ne’eman’s opposition, because he has said he is committed to building a halachic state.
“The Knesset is adopting religious law that is anachronistic, chauvinist, racist and discriminatory, which was written thousands of years ago,” Gal-On stated, calling for separation of religion and state.
The 11 MKs in favor of civil marriages were from Meretz, Labor and Hadash, as well as Kadima MK Nino Abesadze.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
Nebach on us, there are so many Yidden in the world today whose only goal is to knock down our holy Torah and undo our ancient traditions, with the highest victory conceivable to them being to hurt other Yidden. Hashem, please help heal our neshamas, all of us Yidden, we need your help.
Marriage was defined for us by H”. That’s all I need. Changing that is like saying we are now going to change Pesach to celebrate the cultural significance of soccer.
If you want to create some kind of legal “enjoining” agreement in which people can “enjoin” their lives for purposes of legal issues like inheritance, medical decisions, etc., that should be OK. But that should be open to ANY two adults. Two sisters who are widows may choose to enter into such an agreement to be responsible for each other under the eyes of the civil legal authorities. All of the typical protections afforded to married couples could be accepted by the parties involved. That would be OK.
The reality at the end of the day is that these couples are not looking for anyone to legitimize their sexual activity or enter into any kind of Torah marriage. They want the rights and protections afforded to themselves and the person they love and want to spend their life with. Without judging, the only way to do that is to create a a legal “enjoinment” that could apply to ANY two people and thus confer the rights without recognizing or tacitly approving the relationship.
meretz, go ahead, do what you want, but please stop calling your country “Israel”, please stop speaking “Hebrew”, and please stop calling the country a “Jewish State”. You can’t have it both ways. I wouldn’t care if the State stopped calling itself “Jewish” as long as there was freedom of religion for those who want to be frum. But same-sex marriage is too far. It is not only Haredim who are offended by that, but all religious people. Eretz Yisrael is the Holy Land to three major religions, and all of those religions should be honored.
Pintele’ yid
Hope the chareidims badgers are quiet here. Gay marriage is banned by the Torah, and no, it’s not a chareidi chumra!
Why in the world if a MK votes against the bill he calls it “pandering” to chareidim but if a MK votes for the bill he doesn’t call it pandering to the schmutz people?
Voting against the bill is a act of morality and basic decency I’m just disappointed that we did not get 120 votes against.
While most agree that same sex marriage is contrary to halacha and jewish tradition, the Knesset should enact some common sense civil laws assuring certain rights for same sex couples such as hospital visitation and access to certain insurance and legal protections for commonly owned property
And you wonder why G-d sets Irans nuclear scope onTel aviv. Keep spitting on the Torah and you will be spit out of Eretz yisroel.
“The legislation … was rejected, with 39 MKs opposed and 11 in favor.”
So what about the other 70 MKs? They just punted?
The only place you can get married in Israel is via religious instituitions. If two non-Jews want to marry and they are different religions why should the Israeli government give them a problem? If a Russian Olah who is not halachically Jewish wants to marry another Russian who is also not a kosher Yid why give them a problem?
Look at the bright side Meretz MK Zahava Gal On stated publicly that the Torah is thousands of years old.
Now we’re getting somewhere!