Currently Israel does not recognize civil marriages, only acknowledging those conducted under the auspices of the Rabbinate.
This was the first time that authority officials had received such a marriage license. The authority said that the officials had only realized that they should have sought approval from more senior administrative and legal officials only after they granted it.
The Interior Ministry responded: “A number of requests for marriage registration were recently filed without the issue having been brought to the attention of the legal and administrative levels of the Population Authority. The interior minister instructed that processing these applications stop until the issue is brought before senior officials at the Population Authority and before the interior minister for a decision.”