{"id":13379,"date":"2026-07-01T06:22:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T06:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/natharatmouchrika.net\/home\/?p=13379"},"modified":"2026-07-01T06:22:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T06:22:42","slug":"israel-is-an-apartheid-state-and-its-weird-marriage-laws-show-us-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/natharatmouchrika.net\/home\/?p=13379","title":{"rendered":"Israel is an apartheid state \u2013 and its weird marriage laws show us how"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Israel is the only country in the world that does not recognise its own nationality. Why? Because a common national identity would sabotage Israel\u2019s carefully veiled system of segregation<\/h3>\n
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Israel\u2019s supporters have gone apoplectic over a short post on X from the journalist Mehdi Hasan, highlighting Israel\u2019s peculiar marriage laws.<\/p>\n

Hasan asks: \u201cDid you know that you can\u2019t have a civil or secular marriage in Israel?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"X<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Mehdi Hasan<\/span>@mehdirhasan<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Did you know that you can\u2019t have a civil or secular marriage in Israel?<\/div>\n
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\"X<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Michael A. Cohen (NOT TRUMP\u2019S FORMER FIXER)<\/span>\u00a0@speechboy71<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Something like 40 countries have an official state religion. Israel is not one of them! In fact, that Israel defines itself as a Jewish state is not even a religious designation. That Mamdani continues to make this mistake and continues to focus on the world\u2019s one Jewish<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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6:24 AM \u00b7 Jun 29, 2026<\/span>\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0<\/span>577\u00a0K\u00a0Views<\/span><\/div>\n
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407\u00a0Replies<\/span>\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0<\/span>554\u00a0Reposts<\/span>\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0<\/span>6,2\u00a0K\u00a0Likes<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

He\u2019s not wrong. Israel has banned civil marriage. You can wed only in a ceremony strictly controlled by religious authorities. If you want a civil marriage, you have to travel to another country.<\/p>\n

Why, you might reasonably wonder. Isn\u2019t Israel a modern, secular, western-style liberal democracy? After all, that\u2019s what our politicians and media keep telling us.<\/p>\n

The most popular rejoinder to Hasan from Israel\u2019s apologists \u2013 that the situation is no better in Saudi Arabia \u2013 is not quite the flex they seem to imagine. So Israel offers the same human rights\u00a0protections\u00a0as Saudi Arabia? Impressive.<\/p>\n

Others have pointed out that Israel inherited the so-called \u201cmillet\u201d system from the Ottoman empire, which gave the leaders of each confessional group across the Middle East autonomous control over their community\u2019s religious affairs.<\/p>\n

Doubtless, 150 years ago the system worked relatively well in reducing communal tensions in religiously diverse parts of a large empire. It prevented officials in Constantinople \u2013 modern-day Istanbul \u2013 from getting dragged deeply into the day-to-day affairs of its often distant subjects.<\/p>\n

But 150 years ago, Britain sent children up chimneys to sweep them. The law was changed around that time to stop this abusive and dangerous practice.<\/p>\n

Israel was established nearly eight decades ago, supposedly as a secular, western-style liberal democracy. It has had 78 years to change those archaic Ottoman marriage laws.<\/p>\n

Why hasn\u2019t it done so?<\/p>\n

All the bluster decrying Hasan\u2019s post is a desperate attempt to deflect attention away from the fact that Israel\u2019s antiquated marriage laws survive because they are useful to Israel.<\/p>\n

In fact, they are more than that. They are a core component of Israel\u2019s version of apartheid \u2013 a racist system of segregation Israel has successfully shielded from the view of western publics\u00a0with the help of western politicians and media.<\/p>\n

\u2018Demographic threat\u2019<\/h3>\n
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