In a landmark ruling, Israel's Supreme Court yesterday ordered the government to recognize same-sex marriages performed abroad.

The lone dissenter on the seven-judge panel was an observant Jew, highlighting the controversy the decision immediately touched off among ultra-Orthodox Jews and other conservative groups in Israel.

Efforts by Israel's gay community to win approval for same-sex marriage, a key issue in the US and Europe, face a major obstacle because Israel's rabbinate has a monopoly over marriage and divorce.

Yossi Ben-Ari and Laurent Schuman were married in Canada after that country legalized same-sex marriage in 2003. Determined, after a 21-year partnership, to enjoy all the privileges of a married couple in Israel, they were among five couples who petitioned the Supreme Court court to have their marriage registered in Israel, too.

"We're delighted, but the struggle is not over," Ben-Ari said.

Moshe Negbi, a legal expert, said the court's decision is mostly symbolic because gay couples in Israel already had many of the rights of heterosexual partnerships. The significant changes are that they will now get the same tax breaks as a married couple and be able to adopt children, Negbi said.

Israeli law stipulates a couple must be married to adopt a child.

"The marriages of same-sex couples who marry in places like Canada where the law recognizes such marriages, will also be recognized in Israel, and they will be registered as married here," Negbi said.

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 In Israel. The court uses the term "register" instead of "recognition" to ward off religious criticism of the ruling, Negbi said.

With the ruling yesterday, "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 yesterday'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 were 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 yesterday's Supreme Court ruling and make recognition of all same-sex marriages illegal.

Animosity towards gays and lesbians is one of the few issues that unites 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.

Source: China Daily