Couples married via video conferencing to be registered
Court Rules: Israeli Couples Married via "Utah Marriage" to be registered
The Administrative Court in Jerusalem ruled in favor of a petition filed by the NGO Hiddush - for Religious Freedom and Equality, directing the Population Authority and the Ministry of the Interior to register as married any couple that gets married via "Utah marriage” (A marriage platform created by Utah County, Utah, USA. Marriages are conducted via video conferencing with a marriage officiant in Utah and which can take place even if both spouses are in Israel or elsewhere in the world).
30/09/2022 10:41
Tags: Utah marriage · Legal advocacy
Hiddush filed the petition on behalf of eight couples who were married in Utah marriages but who were refused to be registered as married by the Population Authority. The refusal followed an order by Rabbi Aryeh Deri , who was Minister of the Interior at the time. The petition was also filed on behalf of Rabbis Spector and Levinsky from Utah, who conducted online marriage ceremonies for Israeli couples.
The principled petition was filed in March 2021 when it became clear that after a number of couples who had married via Utah marriage were registered as married, Rabbi Deri had intervened in the operation of the Population Authority and ordered that the registration should be stopped. The petition that Hiddush filed against the Minister, the Population Authority and the Attorney General was submitted on behalf of eight couples who represent the many groups in Israel who cannot marry at all or who are forced to marry according to Orthodox custom, due to the Chief Rabbinate's control over Jewish marriages in Israel. To date, approximately 600 couples have already been wed via “Utah marriages”. Many more who had previously refrained from utilizing this option (knowing that the State would refuse to register their marriages) are now able to take advantage of this alternative.
The petition, which was filed by Attorney Sagi Agmon, legal advisor and Deputy Director of Hiddush, and the CEO of Hiddush and attorney Rabbi Uri Regev, sought a principled ruling which would declare that the refusal of the Population Authority to register marriages that took place via videoconferencing was unlawful, and contradicts the provisions of the law and the ruling of the Supreme Court requiring the Population Authority to register official marriage certificates from abroad. The petition emphasized the fact that since the 1960s, , the Supreme Court has consistently rejected the attempts of the Ministry of the Interior to refuse the registration of civil marriages of Israelis that took place abroad and block the path of Israeli couples who wished to exercise their right to marry. The current ruling follows a ruling issued by the Administrative Court in Lod in July in the case of two spouses whom the Population Authority refused to register as married. The importance of the current ruling, as mentioned, is that it sought a principled and general remedy, which will apply to all couples who married or will marry in this manner. The Attorney General has not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling.
Judge Rubin's principled ruling creates a new reality that brings the public in Israel closer to realizing the freedom of marriage that politicians on the right, left and center have been preventing ever since Israel’s establishment.
Judge Avraham Rubin's ruling states that "the case before me is a principled - general petition, this is different from the petition in the Brill case which, although it raised matter of principle, essentially dealt with the concrete matter of a specific couple. The claim that Utah marriages conducted in the format described in the petition may not be registered, because it is considered to have been held in Israel rather than in Utah, is a claim that has no merit. Therefore, the respondents will register the marriages of those among the petitioners before me who applied to register their marriages, if and insofar as there is no other legal impediment to registering their marriages. It is expected that the respondents will equally treat any future applications by the other petitioners, or by others who were married in a Utah marriage as described in the petition, who will file an application in the future for their marriage to be registered”. [Emphasis added]
Therefore, this ruling enables any couple who married in a Utah marriage via video conferencing to be registered as married immediately, in the absence of any other legal impediment to the marriage.
Judge Rubin's principled ruling creates a new reality that brings the public in Israel closer to realizing the freedom of marriage that politicians on the right, left and center have been preventing ever since Israel’s establishment.
The political reality as we approach the fifth election in the current election cycle does not bode well for freedom of marriage, and this only increases the importance of the new ruling. This is a breakthrough that enjoys the clear support of the majority of the Jewish public in Israel. Most Israelis support freedom of marriage and equal recognition by the state of all types of marriage, as part of the full realization of the promise of the Declaration of Independence for ‘Freedom of Religion and Equality’. Hiddush will continue to fight for freedom of marriage and will act in the legal and public arenas to ensure the registration of all ’Utah Marriage’ couples who are waiting to be registered , as well assist those who will now take advantage of the window of opportunity that has just opened and who will utilize this alternative.