Israel High Court Refuses To Create General Procedure To Change Status To "No Religion"

As previously reported, in Israel last September a Tel Aviv District Court granted a petition by author Yorum Kaniuk, ordering the Interior Ministry to allow Kaniuk to change his status on the country's population registry from "Jewish" to "no religion." (See prior posting.)  Kaniuk then petitioned the High Court of Justice asking it to provide a method for citizens who want to be listed as having "no religion" to be able to do so without having to go to court in each case. The Jerusalem Post reports that in an opinion released Saturday night, a 3-judge panel of the High Court of Justice dismissed Kaniuk's petition, saying that it presents a "general topic that does not address any specific individual or any specific difficulty and which therefore cannot be addressed effectively [by the court]."