The Freedom of Religion and Conscience bill, sponsored by Meretz MK Zahava Gal-on, aimed to block discrimination on religious grounds and allow for civil marriage regardless of race, sex, citizenship, and religion.

A bill that aimed to formally separate between religion and state in Israel was rejected by a 56 to 21 margin in its preliminary reading in the Knesset on Monday.

The Freedom of Religion and Conscience bill, sponsored by Meretz MK Zahava Gal-on, aimed to block discrimination on religious grounds and allow for civil marriage regardless of race, sex, citizenship, and religion. The legislation also pushed for the right to determine one’s own means of burial. The bill was submitted as a Basic Law, one of a set of laws that form the constitutional underpinning for Israeli legislation.

“Israel has undergone many crises as a result of the existing vagueness in this area,” Gal-on wrote in the bill’s explanatory text. “Today the lack of clear boundaries between the public realm and the realm of freedom of conscience and religion threatens the viability of Israel as a democratic state as well as its Jewish character.”

Likud-Beytenu MK Yitzhak Aharonovitch responded to Gal-on on behalf of the Knesset. “The proposal seeks to add to the existing Basic Laws,” Aharonovitch said. “The government opposes the bill. Freedom of religion and conscience is a fundamental right in the State of Israel. That said, the government does not support its present formulation.”

Aharonovitch stressed that discussions of a potential Basic Law regulating religion and state should continue, with a revised version to be resubmitted at a later date.

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