Marriage in Israel is regulated by the religious courts of recognized confessional communities, none of which perform interfaith or same-sex marriages. Domestic civil marriage is not recognized in Israel; however, civil marriages performed in foreign jurisdictions, including same-sex marriages, are recognized with full marital rights under Israeli law.
Marriages performed in Israel are only legally recognized when registered with one of the 15 religious marital courts recognized by the state, none of which permit same-sex marriage. In November 2006, the High Court of Justice ruled that same-sex marriages performed abroad may be registered in Israel. Consequently, Israeli same-sex couples who wished to have their marriages recognized by the government had to marry outside Israel, in a jurisdiction where such marriages were legal, and then register upon returning home. In July 2022, the Central District Court ruled that marriages performed via an online civil marriage service established by the U.S. state of Utah, including same-sex marriages, are legal in Israel, removing the necessity of leaving the country to get married. The ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2023.
Polling suggests that a majority of Israelis support the legal recognition of same-sex unions, with a June 2019 opinion poll conducted by Hiddush showing that 78% of Israelis supported recognizing same-sex unions.
Legal history Background
The religious authority for Jewish marriages is the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and there are parallel religious authorities for Christians, Muslims, and Druze, with a total of 15 religious courts. These regulate marriages and divorces for their own communities. Currently, they all oppose same-sex marriages. If the views of one of these bodies were to change, however, it would be legal for members of that community to enter into religious same-sex marriages in Israel. Non-religious same-sex wedding ceremonies without legal significance are commonly conducted in Israel, most notably in Tel Aviv. The first unofficial municipal wedding took place in August 2009, following the Tel Aviv Pride Parade; five couples were married by Mayor Ron Huldai. The traditional verse for wedding ceremonies from Psalm 137, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither...", was used, but replacing Jerusalem with Tel Aviv, Israel's most gay-friendly city. 23 couples held an unofficial mass wedding ceremony in Tel Aviv on 4 June 2019.
Israel does not perform civil marriages. As a result, Israelis not affiliated with any religion, secular Jews not wishing to marry in the rabbinical courts, same-sex couples, and some Russian and Ethiopian Jews, who cannot prove their Jewish heritage to the satisfaction of rabbinical authorities, cannot marry in the religious courts. Many couples go to Cyprus to marry; however, same-sex marriage is not legal in Cyprus, and as a result same-sex couples often travel to Western Europe, Canada or the United States to marry. Despite this fact, unmarried same-sex and opposite-sex couples have equal access to virtually all of the rights of married couples in the form of an "unregistered cohabitation" status (, , ; , ) similar to common-law marriage.
Foreign marriages
2006 Supreme Court ruling Same-sex marriages performed abroad in a jurisdiction where such marriages are legal can be recorded with the Administration of Border Crossings, Population and Immigration, according to a November 2006 ruling by the High Court of Justice. The case was filed by five male Israeli couples married in Canada who sought recognition of their marriage back home in Israel. The court ruled 6–1 that the government must register same-sex marriages performed abroad. One of the plaintiffs said, "I am glad we won and got what we wanted to achieve in this petition, which was the basic right to be registered as married by the Israeli Ministry of Interior, just as any couple marrying abroad does and takes it for granted." Lawyers for the couples cited a Supreme Court case from 1962 that the government must register civil marriages performed abroad. LGBTQ advocates welcomed the court decision. It was strongly condemned by Orthodox Jewish politicians, however, including by United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni, who called the ruling "the destruction of the family unit in the state of Israel".
In December 2012, a family court in Ramat Gan granted a married same-sex couple a legal divorce. This was the first decision of its kind, setting a non-binding precedent.
In December 2016, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit instructed the Interior Ministry to consider applications for citizenship by same-sex and opposite-sex couples equally under the same terms. The same-sex spouse of an Israeli citizen is now able to claim Israeli citizenship after the same interval as an opposite-sex spouse. Previously, same-sex couples had to wait up to seven years, and would generally only be granted permanent residency rather than citizenship. The process was far easier for opposite-sex couples. The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed with the High Court of Justice by the Israeli Gay Fathers Association.
In June 2020, officials in Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality announced they would register interfaith and cohabiting same-sex couples as married. Mayor Ron Huldai said the move makes those who register eligible for housing tax discounts as well as easing enrollment of their children in public daycares and schools. The move was widely regarded as a protest against the government's refusal to legalize civil marriage."Challenging rabbinate, Tel Aviv allows same-sex couples to register as married ". The Times of Israel. 21 June 2020. In November 2020, officials in Ramat Gan made a similar announcement. Mayor Carmel Shama said the measure had been approved almost unanimously by the city administration, and that it would permit same-sex couples who married abroad to register as married on city documents and be treated on par with married couples for tax and other purposes.
Utah online marriages As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, couples unable to legally marry in Israel could not travel overseas to marry due to restrictions on international travel. Around 500 couples decided to marry through an online civil marriage service established by the U.S. state of Utah. The marriage is officiated by Zoom and for an additional fee the couple can obtain an apostille validation stamp for the marriage license provided by Utah state authorities. In June 2021, the Population and Immigration Authority of the Interior Ministry, led by Minister Ayelet Shaked, who is opposed to civil marriage, announced it would not register the marriages, arguing that the weddings were performed in Israel, where there is no provision for civil marriage. Attorney Vlad Finkelshtein rejected this claim, telling The Jerusalem Post that "every aspect of the wedding was performed in Utah, the office of the marriage registrar was in Utah, and that the computer and the IP address from which the ceremony was broadcast were in Utah". The Interior Ministry instructed to freeze the procedure after three marriages were recognized by the Population Authority, prompting dozens of couples to seek legal action.
Judge Efrat Fink of the Central District Court in Lod ruled on 7 July 2022 that the Interior Ministry must recognize all the online marriages. MK Yorai Lahav-Hertzanu welcomed the ruling, saying that it "is important and just, and it simply states the obvious – a couple who marries abroad (even via Zoom) must be recognized in Israel. I urge the state not to appeal this ruling." Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz said, "It is unthinkable to me that a country can allow any of its citizens to become dependent on a foreign entity for such a basic need and right as marriage. This is discriminatory, and causes tremendous pain and alienation, not to mention considerable expense. The rabbinate's position portrays a religion obsessed with controlling others even in the most personal of ways." MK Avi Maoz of the extremist Noam party, known for his violent anti-LGBT beliefs and opposing women serving in the Israel Defense Forces, said that the ruling was "ignoring policy that has been in effect for decades. It's unthinkable that judges in Israel undermine the Jewish state and carry out a quiet coup to make Israel a people's state. God willing, this will be rectified soon." Aryeh Deri urged Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to intervene and seek a stay of the ruling. The decision means that couples need not leave Israel to marry any longer; they may be wed in Israel using the online marriage service and then register their marriage with the state, allowing them to apply for government benefits offered to married couples. The decision was upheld by the Supreme Court on 7 March 2023.
Statistics The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics reported in 2019 that 1,151 same-sex couples had registered their foreign weddings in Israel since 2006. Male couples accounted for the majority of registrations at 61%. By 2024, without details for same-sex couples, Hiddush estimated that over 3,000 couples in which at least one partner is Israeli had been married by Utah via teleconference, making up about 30 percent of the non-US citizens using the system.
Legislative activity
In February 2009, MK Nitzan Horowitz introduced a civil marriage bill which included provisions for same-sex marriages. The bill was rejected by the Knesset in May 2012, in a 39 to 11 vote, with 70 MKs not attending.
In March 2010, the Knesset passed the Civil Union Law for Citizens with No Religious Affiliation, 2010. The law allows opposite-sex couples, but not same-sex couples, to form a civil union in Israel if they are both registered as officially not belonging to any religion. In October 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the law. By 2016, only 121 couples had entered into civil unions.
In June 2013, Hatnuah MKs, led by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, introduced a bill to establish civil unions in Israel for both opposite-sex and same-sex couples. In October 2013, Yesh Atid MKs, led by Finance Minister Yair Lapid, introduced a similar bill. Meretz MK Zehava Gal-On introduced a civil marriage bill which included provisions for same-sex marriages. On 8 July 2015, the Knesset rejected the civil union bill proposed by Yesh Atid, and the civil marriage bill proposed by Meretz. The Knesset voted 39–50 to reject the two bills. Hatnuah's bill was rejected by the Knesset on 22 February 2016 in a 40–47 vote. A same-sex marriage bill failed in the Knesset in June 2018 by three votes, 42 to 39. The bill's sponsor, MK Stav Shaffir from The Zionist Union, blamed its failure on MKs from the coalition government who promised publicly that they would vote in favor, but instead chose to vote against or abstain from voting. The vote happened shortly after an estimated 250,000 people marched in the Tel Aviv Pride Parade, and an opinion poll found that a majority of Israelis supported same-sex marriage.
In August 2022, Prime Minister Lapid urged the Knesset to legalize same-sex marriage. Citing opinion polls, he said, "If most of the public is with us, why did all our bills on the matters fall or get stuck? Why am I the first Israeli prime minister to arrive at an event for the gay community?" Lapid accused other politicians of being "scared" of supporting same-sex marriage.
Court cases