Changing Personal Status Codes as a Discriminated Minority: Aspirations and Pitfalls Around the Possibility to Amend the 1917 Ottoman Law of Family Rights for Muslim Palestinians in Israel

Abstract The article contributes to scholarly discussion of the codification of Islamic law in modern times by looking at the case of the codification and application of Islamic family law in Israel. It focuses on the debate that arose around a proposal of a new family rights’ law for Muslims in Israel by Palestinian Muslim feminists in 2015. After presenting the personal status legislation applying in Sharīʿa Courts in Israel and neighbouring realities, the article looks, through the analysis of declarations by legal and political actors in the media, at the main points of criticism leading to the termination of the debate around the draft law. By reading the events through the lens of Karayanni’s ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ concepts of group rights for the Palestinian minority and of Ashqar-Sharary and Abu-Rabia-Queder’s analysis, the article considers how the structural discrimination of the Palestinian community influences the discussion on Muslim women’s rights in the country.