[cma]

> They can just get married abroad.

They don't have to if they are one of the approved religions. That's a restriction on religious freedom.

> since Israel recognizes Jewish marriages only under orthodox rabbis

I don't get how is this evidence of religious freedom.

[wolvoleo]

And religion and marriage really shouldn't have anything to do with one another. Atheists can marry too.

[nkmnz]

They can. It’s called a civil union. Complaining about marriage laws in Israel in this uninformed way is just an antisemite dog whistle.

[cma]

Israel's domestic civil unions have restrictions on interfaith couples, and common-law/reputed spouse outside of that system doesn't grant the same citizenship pathway, though they can become residents.

A marriage isn't just a state recognition of a civil union as religious, interfaith marriages between recognized religion and non-recognized have to marry abroad to get the similar rights, with special exclusions on this pathway if the immigrant spouse is from the West Bank or Gaza.

[wolvoleo]

A civil union is not the same as a marriage. And I'm not just talking about Israel.

[nkmnz]

Ideally, this is true:

marriage = civil union + religion

Of course everyone should be free to call their civil union whatever they like and the government shouldn’t differentiate at all if your civil union has a religious blessing as well. Just because some governments appropriated the religious terminology and/or the civil union developed from a union sanctioned by a priest doesn’t mean that a government needs to guarantee everyone a religious marriage. To the contrary. Everyone should be able (and required) to register the civil union if they want to be treated as married by the state. I’m not here to defend the status quo of all the laws in Israel - I’m here to emphasize that your reading of the laws about civil unions and marriages in incomplete and the standards you apply to Israel are a hundred times higher than those you seem to apply to any other country. Honi soit qui mal y pense.