Leaders of the Bnei Israel community which originated in India and are now in Israel today rejected a proposal made by President Zalman Shazar aimed at meeting their demands over what they felt was discrimination against them in the administration of the marriage regulations by the Chief Rabbinate.
The Bnei Israel leaders, who heard President Shazar’s proposal at a meeting at the President’s house attended by Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim, decided to continue their sit-down strike and fasting and to hold a mass demonstration tomorrow. One of the members of the Bnei Israel who has been fasting since last week, was ordered hospitalized today.
The proposal, which was backed by the two Chief Rabbis and the Minister for Religious Affairs, Dr. Zorach Warhaftig, declared that the “Chief Rabbinate reiterates its announcement that Bnei Israel of India are Jews in every sense. Questions put at the time of marriage according to the 1962 Chief Rabbinate directives apply to immigrants from every distant land and in no way discriminate against the Bnei Israel.”
It was pointed out that, in the past two years, there was no case in which Bnei Israelites encountered any difficulties in marrying members of other Jewish communities. It was felt here that the President’s proposal ought to have satisfied the Bnei Israelites and that their decision to continue the struggle appears now to be devoid of any real basis.
Explaining their rejection of President Shazar’s proposal, Bnei Israel leaders said that the fact that questions put to their members at the time of marriage applied to all immigrants from distant lands constituted an attempt to “extend the scope of discrimination.”
Leaders of the Liberal Party, meanwhile, announced their intention of seeking a special session of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, which has recessed for the summer, to deal with the Bnei Israel problem, to “condemn discrimination in any form” and to call upon the Rabbinate to annul directives regarding Bnei Israel’s personal status.
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