## Facts

- Five same-sex Israeli citizen couples married in Canada in ceremonies valid under Canadian law and received official Canadian marriage certificates.
- After returning to Israel, the couples applied to the Population Registry to be recorded as “married,” submitting their certificates.
- The Population Administration’s registration official refused, reasoning that same-sex marriage is not recognized under Israeli law.
- The couples petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel sitting as the High Court of Justice to compel registration.
- The petitions were consolidated and heard by an expanded seven-justice panel.

## Issues

1. Whether the population registrar must register as “married” applicants who present authentic, facially valid foreign marriage certificates, including same-sex marriages, or may refuse based on nonrecognition under domestic law.
2. Whether ordering registration would constitute substantive legal recognition of same-sex marriage, a matter for the legislature rather than an administrative registry.

## Decision

- The court, by majority, granted the petitions and ordered the registrar to register the couples as married.
- The majority held the registrar lacks authority to determine the legal validity or domestic recognition of a marriage when presented with an authentic, facially valid foreign certificate.
- The majority held refusal is permitted only where the requested entry is “manifestly incorrect,” understood as an obvious factual error; that exception did not apply.
- The court emphasized that registry entry is administrative and does not resolve the marriage’s legal status or consequences under other laws.
- Justice Rubinstein dissented, arguing the rule for registering foreign civil marriages should not extend to same-sex marriages and that such registration would amount to de facto recognition better left to the legislature.

## Legal Principles

- The population registry’s function is primarily administrative and statistical; the registrar is not a tribunal for determining personal-status validity.
- Upon presentation of an authentic, facially valid foreign marriage certificate, the registrar must record the entry unless it is “manifestly incorrect.”
- “Manifestly incorrect” refers to clear factual impossibility or error, not a legal dispute about recognition under domestic law.
- Registration in the population registry does not itself confer, deny, or conclusively establish the substantive legal validity of the marriage or its consequences; those questions are governed by other legal rules and forums.

## Conclusion

The court required the Population Administration to register foreign same-sex marriages supported by valid certificates, limiting the registrar to checking authenticity and obvious factual correctness while leaving questions of substantive recognition and legal consequences to other legal processes and the legislature.


Ben-Ari v. Dir. of Population Admin., HCJ 3045/05, 61(3) PD 537 (Isr. 2006)