Think love knows no boundaries? Try getting married in Israel

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he short flight from Tel Aviv to the Cypriot port of Larnaca is regularly packed with an assortment of loved-up couples, often partners from different religious traditions, for whom there is no provision to marry back home. “There are 45 countries in the world that impose severe restrictions on the rights to marry of their citizens,” explains Rabbi Uri Regev. “Israel is the only democracy in the world that falls into that category.” For not only does Israel not allow for Jews to marry non-Jews within the country, but neither is there provision for Jews to marry in any way other than that determined by the orthodox rabbinate – all-powerful in matters of Jewish matrimony and divorce. They don’t just prohibit inter-marriage, but also marriage between Jews whose lineage is considered uncertain. Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that “Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family.” And in a recent survey conducted for Valentine’s Day, 84% of the Israeli public agreed. But the religious/political establishment of Israel does not. Those who come to settle in Israel are always Israeli enough to be conscripted into the army, but when it comes to matrimony there have been cases where people are asked for photographs of their grandparents so that the religious authorities can ascertain from their facial expressions if they are Jewish enough.

It all goes back to the Hebrew scriptures and the anxiety that foreigners presented an existential threat to the Jewish people. “They have mingled a holy race with the peoples around them,” complained Ezra, returning from exile in Babylon. “When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat down appalled.” This was over 2,500 years ago, but the same thinking was alive and well in Israel in December when the ministry of education banned Dorit Rabinyan’s novel Borderlife from the school curriculum because, apparently, it encouraged intermarriage. “Adolescents lack a systematic view that includes considerations of maintaining the national-ethnic identity,” said the man from the ministry, echoing Ezra. And crossing the line into overt racism, there are now extreme Jewish nationalists who picket weddings between Jews and Arabs.