Israeli defense min. voices support for same-sex marriage

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Friday vowed to help promote LGBT rights in Israel and said same-sex marriage was a “basic human right.”

Ya’alon, who joined representatives from various political parties to discuss important social issues at an event in Tel Aviv, said that he was “mobilizing to allow members of the [LGBT] community to have a family life, including marriage.”

“This is a basic human right regardless of religion, race, gender or sexual preference, and that it is our duty to allow members of the community to build a family, to have and raise children, to live, to work, to create and contribute to Israeli society,” Ya’alon added, saying that he supports the establishment of a framework for civil marriage in Israel which would allow the state to recognize same-sex couples as a family.

“Over the last few decades, the world has moved forward towards full equality,” Ya’alon said. “Unfortunately, when we talk about equal rights, you (LGBT community), as those perceived in society as different, suffer from inequality in quite a few areas. Israeli society is on the right path, but it’s not enough.”

Also speaking at the event was former finance minister and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, who also committed himself to members of the community, saying “we will pass the civil marriage bill just as we passed the burden equality law and just as we decreased the amount of ministers, because it’s just and right.”

Lapid added that “as long as the LGBT community doesn’t get equal rights, I am not living in a country in which I want to live. Equal civil marriages to all. This is a civil revolution that will allow any couple to make their union official, with all of the rights this entails. This won’t pass easily, as this is a political revolution and a political war.”

In June, Israel’s Justice Minister Tzipi Livni officiated over a gay marriage ceremony.
Writing on her Facebook page, Livni said “I was under the huppah 30 years ago and yesterday. Then, I had personal happiness and today my happiness can help make other people happy,” she wrote. “At the ceremony, I said that the government cannot give out licenses for love.”

According to Livni, “no power in the world can veto love or stand in the way of a couple that is in love and wants a life together.”

“In our eyes, Judaism is open, accepting and respects all people who were created in God’s image,” Livni added.

In August, Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that the Law of Return would be amended to allow non-Jewish same-sex partners married to Jews living abroad to immigrate to Israel and receive Israeli citizenship.

“The gates of Israel will be opened before every Jew and his family without discriminating against his lifestyle,” Sa’ar was quoted as saying by the Jerusalem Post.

Under the Law of Return, Jews from all over the world have the right to live in Israel as citizens. In 1970, the law was extended to those of Jewish ancestry as well to their spouses, which had until now only referred to heterosexual couples.

Sa’ar’s new law came as a result of lobbying on the subject of same-sex couples by the Jewish Agency.

The law went into effect immediately and the partners in question are now able to request immigrant status.

Same-sex marriages are still not legal in Israel as Jewish marriages are controlled by the state rabbinate. Civil marriages are also not an option in the country, but the state does recognize civil marriages which were performed abroad.