[JURIST] Israel's justice minister has dropped language from a proposed amendment to the nation's inheritance law that would define common law marriage to be between a man and a woman, according to a statement made to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) [advocacy website] Tuesday. Daniel Friedmann [official profile] informed the ACRI that he no longer plans to alter the language of the original bill, which allows "partners who live together in a common household" to legally receive inheritances. Friedmann said that he had originally intended to include legislative notes to discourage courts from interpreting the revised text to bar inheritance by unmarried and same-sex couples, but after harsh criticism [Haaretz report] he now plans to drop the limiting language altogether.

The Israeli Succession Law was passed in 1965; in 1999, a commission led by former Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel was established to revise the law. Freidmann advanced the more restrictive version of the bill after discussions with the leaders of ultra-Orthodox Shas [party website] party. Haaretz has more.