Women protest plan to expand power of rabbinical courts

Members of 25 groups that support women who were refused a divorce rally in front of PM's Office against plan to broaden jurisdiction of rabbinical courts
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3431074,00.html
Neta Sela
Published: 07.29.07, 12:48 / Israel Jewish Scene

Members of Icar, the International Coalition for Agunah Rights, which includes 25 organizations that support women who were refused a divorce, rallied in front of the Prime Minister's Office Sunday in protest of a plan to expand the jurisdiction of the rabbinical court to apply also after the divorce was granted.

The women's groups are concerned that a new bill approved by the ministerial committee on legislation last week may benefit men while hurting women. The bill puts the authority for exercising the court's rulings in the court's hands, rather than in the hands of the enforcement authorities like it used to be in the past.

"The haredi MKs threaten a coalition crisis day-in day-out and the cabinet members cave in to their demands every time and impose on the public decrees that are impossible to bear," Ikar representatives said.

"The bill undermines the status quo on state and religious affairs, and hurts women who are undergoing a divorce or those who have been refused one" they said. "The bill is part of a growing trend to expand the rabbinical court's authority at the expense of women in Israel."