Israeli Civil Court Asserts Jurisdiction Over Same-Sex Couple's Divorce

Jerusalem Post reported yesterday that a Tel Aviv Family Court has broken new legal ground by granting a divorce to a same-sex couple who had married in Canada but lived in Israel. In an earlier case, Israel's Supreme Court had ordered registration of these same-sex marriages. Normally under Israeli law, only religious courts have jurisdiction over divorces. However the rabbinical courts, which do not recognize same-sex marriage, had, at least so far, failed to rule in the case. The Tel Aviv court said that it would violate the couple's fundamental rights and liberties to prevent them from dissolving a marriage that the state had recognized.  The civil court held that it could exercise jurisdiction over divorces when the rabbinical courts failed to do so.