Eight months later, they moved in together quietly. But then, slowly, I started bringing her here with me. But his family grew to like her. It wasn't easy. In Israel, marriage licenses are given only through religious ceremonies, but a 1929 law makes it a crime punishable by six months in jail for a rabbi, priest or Muslim cleric to marry people of different religions.
Some couples keep separate religions and go abroad for a civil ceremony.
According to international law, the Israeli government must honor marriage licenses awarded in other countries. At the time, many people were warning me that this marriage would break up. What has kept us together these 16 years is that we love each other, our immediate families support us, and we haven't listened to other people. Butter and Nassar do not know of another couple like them. Many Jews and Arabs who disapprove of interreligious marriage say they do so because it demeans the integrity of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.