Israeli court: Online civil marriages are valid

Israeli judge says marriages performed by foreign authorities must be accepted as valid by the State of Israel, which has no civil marriage option.

By World Israel News Staff

An Israeli court ruled on Sunday that couples married via Zoom in civil ceremonies must have their marriages legally recognized by the state, in a move which could potentially shake up the status quo around civil marriage in Israel.

In December 2020, a number of Israeli couples married by the U.S. state of Utah via Zoom presented marriage certificates to the Interior Ministry, which were initially accepted by the state.

However, then-Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, who has been a vocal opponent of civil marriage, instructed clerks to no longer accept the certificates. He argued that the couples must have physically left the country and married abroad in order for their documentation to be accepted.

The couples then launched a lawsuit against the minister in order to force the institution to accept the marriages performed online.

In Sunday’s ruling, Judge Efrat Fink wrote that “failure to leave the territory of the State of Israel to perform the ceremony” does not constitute grounds for the marriage certificate to be invalid.

She added that “determining the location of a marriage” was not the job of an Interior Ministry clerk – rather, the administrator is responsible only for confirming the document’s validity and then registering the couple.

Israel does not have state-administered civil marriage; rather, it uses sectarian Ottoman Law regarding personal status issues and requires people to be married according to their religious faith.

For example, Jewish Israelis must be married by the rabbinate, Christians according to their specific church’s requirements, Muslims under Sharia Law, and so on. This means that interfaith or non-religious marriage is not possible within the geographic boundaries of the Jewish state.

A 1960s court decision that couples married abroad can present their marriage certificates to Israel’s Interior Ministry has provided Israelis who cannot or do not wish to be married under the auspices of a religious authority with a loophole.

Although they cannot be married civilly within Israel, they can marry in a nearby country, such as Cyprus, and that marriage certificate will be officially recognized by the Israeli government.

But travel restrictions and tourist bans triggered by the coronavirus pandemic meant that couples wishing to do so no longer had the option to fly abroad, triggering Israelis to seek out online options.

Religiously observant MKs, including Shlomo Karhi (Likud) and Avi Maoz (Religious Zionism), pledged to push back against the ruling.