"Filed in the Jerusalem Administrative Court on behalf of a woman identified only as Miss Jackson, an Israeli-born former member of the Black Hebrews community in Dimona, and her partner, Michael Johnson, a Nigerian Christian, the petition identifies a gap in the law where the two cannot be married due to their differing religious identities and cannot live together in a recognized common law marriage because she is a permanent resident and not a citizen. Johnson, who arrived here in 2007 after meeting Jackson in Ghana the same year, has no official recognized status in Israel. “There is a gap in the marriage law in Israel because there is no recognition of civil marriages,” said attorney Michael Decker, representing the Jerusalem Institute of Justice. “People here cannot get married to someone of a different religion, and yet someone who is a permanent resident has no option to live in a common law marriage." (thanks Sarah)