Israel Medieval

Israel’s Medieval Ban On Intermarriage

by Jonathan Cook

Here is a simple infographic (possibly behind the Haaretz paywall) setting out how Israel has engineered a series of hurdles to prevent intermarriage, especially between Jews and non-Jews.

There are no civil institutions in Israel dealing with marriage (and many other personal status issues), meaning that only hardline Orthodox rabbis get to determine who marries a “real Jew”.

Israel dresses this up as an attempt to protect religious tradition, but actually it’s religious coercion designed to prevent assimilation – the greatest threat to Zionism, Israel’s state ideology.

So this kind of medieval enforcement of segregation according to sect, tribe or race (depending on how you look at it) is actually required by the very nature of a Jewish state – sorry, I meant Jewish and democratic state.

Jonathan Cook is an award-winning British journalist based in Nazareth, Israel, since 2001. http://www.jonathan-cook.net/