Foreign Minister and Kadima party chairwoman Tzipi Livni has reversed her stand on civil marriage and is proposing a bill to legalize secular unions in a bid to build a new government.
The move came after Livni rejected demands from the Shas Sephardic religious party to state her position on the status of
After having lost the support of the religious sector due to her unwillingness to commit herself to maintaining an undivided
Israeli law allows marriages only according to Jewish tradition and under the supervision of the Chief Rabbinate.
Legalizing civil marriages would be a popular move among a large percentage of the Russian community, much of which is secular. Livni admitted in an interview on a Russian language television channel that the bill has little chance of passing but added that she wanted to demonstrate Kadima's position on the issue.
Likud officials called the bill "cheap propaganda" and an attempt to buy votes in the Russian secular community.
Sources in the Israel Is Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu) party, which is comprised largely of Russian immigrants, pointed out that Livni herself has voted twice against similar bills.