Israel recognizes overseas adoption by gay couple, grants child citizenship

[davidinalameda]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/977933.html

The State of Israel has agreed for the first time to register an overseas adoption by a gay couple and to grant the child Israeli citizenship.

The landmark case involves a Cambodia-born boy, now eight years old, who was adopted in 2000 in the United States by two men who hold American and Israeli citizenship. Following his adoption, the boy received American citizenship and was also converted to Judaism. The parents returned to Israel shortly after the adoption, but their applications to the Interior Ministry to recognize the adoption and grant their child citizenship were unsuccessful. Since 2001, the child has lived in Israel on a temporary residence visa that is extended annually.

In 2002, the parents, represented by the New Family organization, filed a High Court of Justice petition against the interior minister. The ruling on that petition has been delayed pending the court's decision in an earlier case involving a lesbian woman's U.S. adoption of her partner's biological child. A few months ago, the male couple wrote a personal letter to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, asking him to put an end to the state's cruel treatment of them and their son.

[MNBrewer]

1. Wow!

And the good ol' US of A falls even farther behind....

Congrats to the Israeli couple with the new baby!! :)

[ccharles000]

2. sometimes I think when people say America the land of the free...

They are just lying to themselves.

[MNBrewer]

3. Why do you hate America?

;)

[MADem]

4. Israel's population is a bit stagnant. They do need to grow it, and this is one way to do it.

It's good that they saw the light.

What's curious is that many Israelis are leaving Israel, though some say it is temporary, and have used their "right of return" to, of all places, GERMANY and have applied for dual citizenship based on their grandparents, many of whom didn't make it out of the camps. These individuals get priority treatment, as they should, and can have their hands on a German passport pretty quickly.

The reason they are doing this is because of the great JOB MARKET in the European Community. With that EC passport, they can get work ANYWHERE in Europe.


You should crosspost this in the I/P forum--it's an interesting story!

[Behind the Aegis]

5. Now, if more places would do this.

[UndertheOcean]

6. Good Move !