Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

A law contrived in secret - Haaretz, Feb. 21, 2008

Following 60 years since the historic error of not separating religion from the state, the government is now expanding the authority of religion in the judiciary. Instead of heading the opposite way and taking away from the rabbinical courts their monopoly in matters of marriage and divorce, the state is now granting them further decision making powers in civil matters.

According to the bill prepared by the ministerial committee on legislation, the citizens of Israel will not be able to choose what kind of court will deliberate their disputes on capital, property and contracts. Will they choose to be judged according to the law of the Torah, or according to the law of the Knesset? All this was contrived nearly in total secret in the prime ministers bureau, in order to please Shas, with the assistance of ministers Yitzhak Herzog and Ruhama Avraham.

This superfluous piece of proposed legislation is even being presented as an achievement to womens organizations, because it blocked a much worse bill. This distortion of the facts is nothing more than a rude spin.

Over the years, the rabbinical courts have taken upon themselves authority that had not been granted to them by law, and transformed themselves into arbitrators and judges in a variety of matters. Two years ago, Supreme Court Justice Ayala Procaccia ruled that the rabbinical courts are delving in areas that are beyond their authority. Since then, Shas tried to overturn that ruling and to anchor the practice already rejected by law, which would allow the rabbis to rule also on civil matters and not only on marriage and divorce.