Polygamy in the Palestinian territories

Marriage in the Palestinian territories deals with the marriage law and customs in the Palestinian territories, ie., the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israeli marriage law applies to Israeli settlers in Area C of the West Bank. Muslims resident in East Jerusalem are subject to Israeli marriage law.

Personal status issues of Muslims in the Palestinian territories, including marriage, are governed by customary law, of the Sunni Islam Hanafi school (despite most Palestinian Muslims follow the Shafi'i school) as codified and modified by legislation as follows:

In the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian-issued Law of Family Rights 1954 set puberty as the minimum age of marriage with no marriage allowed for a female aged under 9 or a male aged under 12. The Palestinian Qadi al-Quda issued an administrative decision in 1995 raising these ages in Gaza to a minimum of 15 for the female and 16 for the male, which aligned with the Jordanian law which applied to the West Bank. All ages are calculated according to the lunar calendar. Registration of marriage is mandatory, but failure to register a marriage does not invalidate the marriage.

As at March 2012, work is reported to be proceeding on the text of a Palestinian personal status law.

Polygyny, whereby a husband has more than one wife, is explicitly permitted. However, a woman can specify in the marriage contract whether or not her husband can take additional wives during the couple's marriage, and if the husband does so in violation of that marriage contract then she can petition for a divorce. There are also the classical injunctions that a man must treat all co-wives equitably and provide them with separate dwellings, and a man must declare his social status in the marriage contract.

Polyandry, whereby a wife has more than one husband, is not permitted. Muslims in East Jerusalem are subject to Israeli marriage law, which since at least 1959 has barred the formation of polygamous unions in Israel.

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