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. 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; , ; , ) 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. 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 , 2012 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. 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.
Court cases In November 2015, the National LGBT Taskforce of Israel petitioned the
Supreme Court to allow same-sex marriage in the country, arguing that the refusal of the rabbinical court to recognize same-sex marriage should not prevent civil courts from performing same-sex marriages. The court did not immediately rule against the validity of the petition. In January 2017, at a public hearing and in its capacity as the High Court of Justice, two justices of the court implied the issue of civil and same-sex marriage was the responsibility of the Knesset, rather than the courts. The court handed down its ruling in
Israel Organization for Protection of Individual Rights v. Ministry of Interior on 31 August 2017, determining that the issue was the responsibility of the Knesset, and not the judiciary.
Knesset and military recognition After the
April 2019 elections and the election of a record five openly LGBT MKs, it was announced that the Knesset would replace the term "husband and wife" with "couple" on all its official documents, and would grant equal rights to the partners of LGBT legislators, such as permanent entry passes to the Knesset, authorization to drive Knesset-issued cars assigned to their partners, and invitations to all official ceremonies and events. In November 2023, the Knesset passed an amendment to the
Families of Fallen Soldiers Law requiring the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to recognise the surviving partners of LGBT soldiers. Omer Ohana, whose partner , an IDF reservist who died in
Be'eri during a
Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, campaigned for the change. Ohana had previously been unable to fully participate in a
shiva ceremony and under the law was not recognized as Golan's widower. The law now defines an IDF widower or widow as a person whose partner was
killed in combat regardless of gender. ==Political viewpoints==