Israel's Law of Return Extended To Same-Sex Non-Jewish Spouses

Since 1970, Israel's Law of Return which grants every Jew in the world the right to settle in Israel has also permitted the non-Jewish spouse of a Jew to settle in the country. The Jerusalem Post reports that yesterday Israel's Interior Minister Gidon Saar instructed the Population and Immigration Authority and the Jewish Agency to grant immigration visas and Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return to non-Jewish same-sex spouses on the same basis as to heterosexual couples. Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) groups in Israel and the United States strongly criticized the Interior Minister's decision.