ABSTRACT
The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, commonly known as the Declaration of Independence, promises that the ''Jewish State'' shall ''maintain full equality of rights, social and political, to all its citizens irrespective of religion, race or gender; guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; safeguard the holy places of all religions.'' The most incisive of all religious coercions legitimized in Israel is due to the exclusive applicability of rabbinical law for Jews, and Sharia law for Muslims, in matters of marriage and divorce, and the resulting discrimination against women. The legislative trend is to regard religious purposes as deserving coercion only in cases where either the political pressure is too great or too important to withstand, or where—on weighing the conflicting interests—the religious purpose outbalances any secular one.
