Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Thursday July 13, 2006

Shorts: Mideast

Knesset kills civil marriage bill

jerusalem (jta) | Israel’s Parliament rejected a bill that would have allowed civil unions.

The bill, proposed by lawmaker Yuri Shtern of Yisrael Beiteinu, was defeated Wednesday, July 5 in a 63-13 vote. The proposal would have allowed Israelis to circumvent religious authorities by entering a “couple covenant.”

Some 300,000 immigrants are barred from marrying by Israel’s rabbinical courts because they are not Jewish according to Jewish law and therefore can’t have a religious Jewish wedding.

The country’s justice minister, Haim Ramon, said he would write a new proposal that would take care of the immigrants’ dilemma.

Katsav accused of harassment

jerusalem (jta) | Israeli President Moshe Katsav reportedly complained he is being blackmailed.

Channel 2 television reported Saturday, July 8 that Katsav summoned Attorney General Menachem Mazuz earlier this week to tell him that a woman had falsely accused him of sexual harassment and was trying to extort money out of him.

Yediot Achronot identified the alleged blackmailer as a former director in Katsav’s office. Mazuz, addressing the Knesset Law Committee on Sunday, confirmed he had met with Katsav to hear about allegations of “improper conduct” lodged against him, but said there was no mention of blackmail.

Israel won’t talk to Polish lawmaker

jerusalem (jta) | Israeli officials said they are refusing all contact with Poland’s education minister because they consider his party to be anti-Semitic.

Roman Giertych heads the League of Polish Families, which has a history of anti-Semitism, according to several anti-racist organizations.

Israeli officials said the lack of contacts could affect Holocaust education efforts in the two countries.

Japanese leader visiting Israel

jerusalem (jta) | Japan’s prime minister was on a diplomatic trip to Israel this week at the same time fighting broke out in Lebanon.

Junichiro Koizumi urged Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leaders to negotiate a solution to the present fighting.

Koizumi visit to Israel was the first by a Japanese prime minister in 11 years.

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.