Women disadvantaged by new powers for Israel’s religious courts

Late at night on March 26, without prior notification and as most Israelis were running to their safe rooms and shelters, the Knesset passed a law expanding the authority of Israel’s rabbinical and Islamic courts into areas previously only in civil courts – a  move which, according to legal experts, endangers basic fundamental rights, including the right to equality, freedom of and from religion, and the right to a fair trial and undermines basic principles of Israeli democracy.

According to the millet system, which was inherited from the Ottoman rule and preserved through the British Mandate, personal matters such as marriage, divorce, and certain aspects of family law are decided in religious courts - rabbinical courts for Jews, Sharia courts for Muslims, and Ecclesiastical courts for Christians (although Ecclesiastical courts are not very active in Israel today.) These courts subordinate individual rights to religious authority and its interpretation of religious law and communal concerns.

With passage of the new legislation, these religious courts are now empowered to also have authority over matters of labour law and employment disputes, rental contracts, disputes between neighbours, property law, and so forth. 

And unlike civil courts, which must rule according to the laws of the state and abide by values such as equality before the law, this newly passed law specifically states that these issues will be adjudicated in the religious courts according to religious law.