The Tel Aviv District Court rejected a request by a group of radical leftists to renounce their Judaism in favor of being registered by the Interior Ministry as "Israelis."
The request, filed by 21 Israeli citizens including Gush Shalom founder Uri Avnery and former Meretz MK Shulamit Aloni, asked the court to instruct the Interior Ministry to recognize their nationality as "Israeli" instead of "Jewish," something the Ministry refuses to do because "Israeli" does not appear on the official ministry list of acceptable nationalities.
In rejecting the request, Judge Noam Solberg said the issue was out of the court's jurisdiction.