Israeli supreme court orders registry of same sex marriages performed abroad

Marriage law in Israel is, constitutionally, the prerogative of the rabbis; the state 'registers' the matrimonial arrangements made by non-observant Jews.  The Supreme Court today ruled that same sex 'marriages' contracted abroad must be registered by the government. From Israel Insider:

Civil marriages cannot be performed in Israel because of the rabbinate's monopoly on family law. But couples married in civil ceremonies abroad have all the rights of a married couple, and their marriages are registered here. The court uses the term "register" instead of "recognition" to ward off religious criticism of the ruling, Negbi said.

 
With the ruling Tuesday, "The court says that now, not only heterosexuals, but homosexuals, too, can have civil marriages," Negbi added.

 
The word game did not pacify the ultra-Orthodox community, which was infuriated by Tuesday's court decision.

 
"We don't have a Jewish state here. We have Sodom and Gomorrah here," said Moshe Gafni, an ultra-Orthodox lawmaker, referring to two cities the Bible said was destroyed because their citizens were so sinful.

 
"I assume that every sane person in the state of Israel, possibly the entire Jewish world, is shocked, because the significance is ... the destruction of the family unit in the state of Israel," Gafni told Israel's Army Radio.

 
Gafni said he would consider presenting a bill to parliament that would bypass Tuesday's Supreme Court ruling and make recognition of all same-sex marriages illegal.

 
Animosity toward gays and lesbians is an important subject of debate in Israel, and is also one of the few issues that unites orthodox Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Holy Land. They have jointly come out against gay parades in the city, and are all likely to oppose the Supreme Court ruling.

Indeed.  On the other hand, since 'marriage' is understood by most people in the West to mean a 'perhaps temporary contract' that has more to do with the regulation of property interests and post-dissolution custody issues than with anything else, it is not an issue I am prepared to riot over; will re-read Professor Mary Ann Glendon's Abortion and Divorce in Western Law instead.