According to a law proposed by Hadash, the legal marriage age in Israel was increased from 17 to 18 on Monday night.

A bill to that effect, was supported by the coalition chairman Yariv Levin (Likud Beytenu), MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad), MK Zehava Gal-On (Meretz) and MK Dov Khenin (Hadash), among others, passed its second and third (final) readings with 55 in favor and 11 opposed. Violating the new law carries a prison sentence of up to two years.

The bill that cleared the plenum Monday, besides setting the age at 18, allows the family court to recognize a marriage for minors in special cases — but only above 16 years of age, and only after it interviews the applicants and receives the recommendation of a social worker. In addition, the ministers of justice, the interior, religious affairs, and public security, are required to submit an annual report on the marriage of minors to the Knesset, which would include statistics on the numbers of exemptions requested, exemptions granted, and individuals prosecuted.

The legislation raised the ire of ultra-Orthodox parliamentarians, who argued it would infringe on the rights of religious teenagers who wished to start families. MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) said the law discriminates against haredim. “You’re fanatics! You’re hypocrites,” he said. Racist MK Nissim Ze’ev (Shas) accused Muslim men of kidnapping Israeli teenage girls and said a 16-year-old “can’t be forced to leave an Arab village, even if the law won’t allow her to get married.”