Utah online newlyweds to petition High Court against Interior Ministry

Deri’s office has said that the Interior Ministry is conducting “an in-depth examination” of the wedding and registration process which he said the state has not encountered before.

By JEREMY SHARON
High Court of Justice prepares for hearing on whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can form the next government, May 3, 2020 (photo credit: COURTESY HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE)
High Court of Justice prepares for hearing on whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can form the next government, May 3, 2020
(photo credit: COURTESY HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE)
Five couples who got married in an online civil ceremony under the auspices of the US State of Utah are set to file a petition to the High Court of Justice against the Interior Ministry’s decision to freeze the registration of their marriage.
Last week, it emerged that four Israeli couples got married in a Utah online civil marriage ceremony without ever leaving Israel, a service the state began offering at the beginning of 2020.
The four couples then obtained apostilles, an internationally recognized legal instrument validating official documents, for the official document they had received from the State of Utah and presented the documentation to their local branch of the Population and Immigration Authority.
Two of the couples had their weddings successfully registered by the authority. But when officials raised questions about the other two couples, an order eventually was given by Interior Minister Arye Deri, head of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Shas Party, to freeze the processing of the registration requests.
Attorney Vlad Finkelshtein, who is representing several couples, has filed a complaint to the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), which oversees the Hague Apostille Convention of 1961 to which Israel is a signatory, arguing that the Interior Ministry has violated the convention.
Finkelshtein also filed a complaint with the US State Department over the Interior Ministry’s failure to recognize a legal US document.
Israel has no provision for civil marriage inside the country but does recognize those performed abroad. A High Court ruling in 1962 requires the Interior Ministry to recognize a civil marriage that was performed legally in another country.
Since the Utah online marriages are recognized by the State of Utah and by the US, the Interior Ministry is legally bound to register the couples as married in Israel, Finkelshtein said.
A petition requesting that the High Court instruct the ministry to register the marriages will be filed on Sunday, he said.
Finkelshtein is representing five Israeli couples who have now married through Utah’s online marriage service, as well as another 13 couples who have registered for Utah’s marriage service but have not yet married.

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Deri’s office has said the Interior Ministry is conducting “an in-depth examination” of the wedding and registration process, which he said the state has not encountered before.
The Hiddush religious pluralism organization is also threatening to petition the High Court over the issue. They wrote a letter to Deri as well as to the attorney-general and director-general of the Population Authority warning of such action.
“The marriage certificates issued by the Utah State authorities, just like those issued for all other civil marriages held in any of the fifty United States, are lawful; and they should continue to be routinely registered by Israel’s Population Authority for all Israeli citizens and permanent residents,” Hiddush wrote.
Hiddush CEO Rabbi Uri Regev said the online Utah marriages also have precedent, pointing to action his organization took two years ago to facilitate the arrangement and registration of a civil wedding for an Israeli couple abroad through an online ceremony under the auspices of the US State of Montana via a live video broadcast and a valid, official Montana state marriage certificate.
“If the suspension of marriage registrations is not revoked, there seems to be no avoiding a referral [of this case] to the courts to reimpose their sentence on the [government] machine in order to protect the rights of Israelis who are forced to seek remedies for the violation of their right to marriage in Israel [and] forced to marry in foreign countries that respect this basic human right, according to their laws,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation of Israelis unable or unwilling to marry in a religious ceremony. It has left thousands of couples who seek civil marriage in limbo because foreign travel is currently extremely difficult, making the lack of civil marriage a more acute crisis.


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Arye Deri
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High Court of Justice
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marriage
Interior Ministry