Confrontation Looms Between Religious and Secular Courts in Israel

The makings of a bitter and possibly decisive confrontation between the religious and secular courts in Israel took shape today in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling last week that a divorce document, though issued by a rabbinical court, was secular in nature and subject to judicial review. Israel’s “dayanim” (religious court justices) angrily denounced the ruling and proclaimed today that they would not accept directives in halachic matters from any but halachic authorities.

Under the system prevailing in Israel, the populace, though largely non-Orthodox or non-religious, is governed by Orthodox rabbinical courts with regard to family matters such as marriage and divorce. The outcome of the latest dispute may determine whether halachic or national law is the final arbiter.

The Supreme Court ruling, issued by Justice Joel Sussman, stated that the rabbinate could not insert into the divorce certificate–as distinct from the “get” which is the divorce instrument itself–the fact that the woman receiving the divorce was adulterous and forbidden, by religious law, to have relations with either her former husband or her lover. The case in question involved a Beersheba woman whose divorce document was delayed for three years by a local rabbinical court. According to the “dayanim” the case was purely halachic and thus exclusively within the jurisdiction of the rabbinical court which renders its judgements only on the basis of Torah law. They accused the Supreme Court of violating Torah law by intervening in matters of halacha.

Meanwhile, two Knesset members of the National Religious Party introduced a private members bill in the Knesset yesterday calling for the establishment of a special court to rule in-jurisdictional disputes between the secular and rabbinical courts. The measure, proposed by Zevulun Hammer and Yehuda Ben Meir, would clearly limit the authority of the Supreme Court in such cases. They suggested that the special court be composed of two civil court justices and one religious court judge, the latter to be appointed by the Minister of Religious Affairs. The two civil court members would be appointed by the Justice Minister “after consulting with the Religious Minister.” The special court thus would be clearly religious oriented which is the aim of the two NRP MKs. Their bill mentioned that a similar court functioned during the period of the British Mandate in Palestine.