Supreme Court: There is no right to same-sex marriage - Shlomo Pyutrikovsky

by Shlomo Pyutrikovsky

Court rejects claim that LGBTs have protected right to same-sex marriage, rule that law refusing recognition of gay marriage is legal.

Israeli Supreme court

Flash 90

Supreme Court Justices Elyakim Rubinstein, Neal Handel, and Anat Baron on Thursday morning unanimously rejected the Israeli Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Association's demand that the Jewish state recognize same-sex marriages.

According to the Association, the Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty should be interpreted to allow same-sex marriage. At the very least, the petitioners claimed, the law not allowing same-sex marriage should not be constitutional.

"For our purposes, Israeli civil law does not recognize same-sex marriage," the court said. "Therefore, the petitioners deviated from commencing the non-recognition doctrine and allowing the civil court to discuss something under the jurisdiction of the rabbinical courts. Instead, they are asking to establish as an essential precondition that marriage between two individuals of the same gender exists in Israeli law, and it does not," Rubenstein wrote in his ruling.

"In essence, the petitioners are asking the court to recognize same-sex marriage via court ruling, despite the fact that Israeli law does not recognize such a thing. Regarding recognition of marriages which are not recognized by religious law, including same-sex marriage, the ruling was already made that such recognition should be made by the governing body (i.e., the Knesset - ed.)."

Rubenstein emphasized that the "law preservation" section of the Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty is specifically intended to preserve issues regarding personal status. Therefore, he said, you cannot call upon this law in order to assist the petitioners.

"The section on law preservation was intended from the start to protect, among other things, the right of rabbinical courts to rule. The petitioners' view of the requested support as commentary, as opposed to partial dismissal, is an attempt to circumvent the law's essential ruling in section 10, and to receive constitutional support for exactly that which those who wrote the Basic Laws clearly intended not to allow."

Though Israel recognizes foreign same-sex marriages, there are no "civil unions" in Israel.
In 2014, Israel extended the Law of Return to include non-Jewish same-sex partners.


Shlomo Pyutrikovsky

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/234860

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