One reason for the absence of many members of the homosexual community from the Gay Pride parade, reported Itay Katz on Friday, was a pervading feeling that most of the community's greatest social battles have already been won. That is based on a number of victories in the courts and society's wide acceptance of same-sex couples. 

However, a claim filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) in March in the Labor Court, which did not receive much attention, demonstrates just how unfounded that perception of battles won can be. ACRI's legal adviser, attorney Dan Yakir, says the legal achievements of the gay and lesbian community are only partial. Some were mandated by lower courts and others were won outside the courtroom. Consequently, they are not locked into binding and precedent setting legal standards. 

"There is a lot of unresolved discrimination and a law needs to be passed." Beyond that, each specific case commits only the organization that is directly concerned. For example, in June 2001, the Tel Aviv Labor Court decided that a same-sex couple was entitled to a survivor's pension from the Mivtahim insurance fund. However, this was a decision made by a lower court, and consequently does not represent a precedent - it is doubtful if all the other pension funds will consider themselves obliged to follow it. 

If, for example, there were at least the feeling that the civil service recognized single-sex partners as the equivalent of a common-law wife or husband, and entitled them to rights equivalent to those of heterosexual partners, it would be one thing. The fact is, there is still a long way to go. 

As far as the largest social-welfare institution in the country is concerned - that's the NII (National Insurance Institute) - a homosexual partner cannot be a widow or widower and is not entitled to a survivor's pension. If the bereaved have no income from such a pension, they will be doomed to living off an old-age pension of 1,300 shekels, just for spending a life with someone of the same sex. 

The view of the NII is especially salient in view of the fact that the Civil Service Commission and the Israel Defense Forces have already determined that same-sex partners are entitled to survivor's rights. Giora Raz, the former general secretary of the Divers Association and manager of the Dolphinarium, lived for 23 years with Yaakov Lisboder, an El Al flight attendant and service manager. 

Distant dream

When they first started living together in 1980, the revolution regarding same-sex couples was not even a distant dream. Lisboder was the principal breadwinner. Each of the two had power of attorney over the other's bank account. When Lisboder died in March 2003 of cancer, he left Raz the apartment and ten thousand dollars for each of Raz's four grandchildren. Raz, according to the statement of claim, has no income other than his old-age pension - 1,300 shekels. 

He quit his last job as the manager of Lilith, a restaurant that employs at-risk youth, in order to care for his ill life-partner. The survivor's pension - or rather only 50 percent of it, because he already receives an old-age pension - could increase his income by 800 shekels. Last August, Raz submitted a claim for a survivor's pension in the Holon branch of the NII. 

In late September, he received a response from Yehudit Kuzari of the NII that his request had been turned down because he does not meet the criteria for a widower according to the NII law. He appealed to the ACRI and with its help, filed a claim with the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court. Raz says that he is doing it "mainly for the coming generations." 

The first time the High Court of Justice recognized a same-sex couple as a common-law couple was in the Danilowitz decision, handed down in 1994. At that time, the judges determined that a same-sex couple is also entitled to benefit from the arrangement according to which El Al provides the partners of its employees with plane tickets. In the wake of the Danilowitz case, Raz also began receiving tickets from El Al, which he continues to receive to this day. 

In other words, to El Al, he is a widower - for the NII, he is not. The NII law defines a widower as "the man who was the partner of the insured woman at the time of her death." In the claim, attorney Yakir maintains that in accordance with the principles of Israeli law, and particularly the right to equality, the term "widower" should be interpreted in the law as referring to same-sex partners as well. 

"The removal of Raz from the boundaries of the NII law would cause harsh discrimination against the claimant and the deceased due to their sexual tendency," said Yakir. "This interpretation assigns an inferior value to the warm and loving relationship between the claimant and the deceased that lasted 23 years. It is equivalent to stating that the loving and sharing relationship between the claimant and the deceased is not worthy of recognition, in addition to the humiliation and deep offense committed against the dignity of the claimant." 

Yakir notes that the goal of the survivor's pension is to mitigate the serious economic harm caused to a person of low income by the death of a life partner. He explains that even "someone whose partner was of the same sex could find himself in dire straits and lacking any significant source of income after the death of the partner." The hearing on the claim submitted by Raz has been set for September. The NII was unwilling to comment on the subject before the submission of a statement of defense.