(JTA) – Israel received the lowest possible score in a freedom of marriage survey conducted by the Israeli religious rights organization Hiddush.
The not-for-profit group released the results of its survey on Tuesday giving Israel a zero along with 45 other countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iran. The survey ranked countries on a scale of zero to 2.
Hiddush cited Israel’s “religious monopoly on marriage, which, among many determining factors, prevents hundreds of thousands of citizens from getting married.”
In a statement, Hiddush chair Stanley Gold said, “Our hope is that the difficult image this map has created will assist in promoting a policy change in Israel that will bring forth freedom of marriage. It is universally recognized as a major human and civil right and should be a natural implementation of Israel’s own Declaration of Independence, which promises freedom of religion and conscience.”
Hiddush said Israel was the only developed country that failed to score any points.
