in the Israel Defense Forces. The couple filed an emergency petition with the Tel Aviv District Court. The men were represented by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Judge Uzi Vogelman ruled that the state had acted illegally in attempting to deport the man. In 1999, a Supreme Court ruling established that the ministry could not deport foreign nationals married to Israeli citizens. Vogelman's decision extends that decision to apply to common-law marriages, including same-sex couples.<ref>The immigration rights of same-sex couples , Association for Civil Rights in Israel</ref> In March 2008, Israel's Interior Ministry granted a gay Palestinian from Jenin a rare residency permit to live with his partner of 8 years in Tel Aviv after he said his sexuality put his life in danger in the West Bank. In 2012, the first same-sex Israeli couple was granted a divorce by an Israeli family court. The divorce of Tel Aviv University Professor Uzi Even, the first openly gay Knesset member, and Dr. Amit Kama was granted by the Ramat Gan Family Court, according to Haaretz, which ordered the Interior Minister to register their status as divorced. In December 2016, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit issued an instruction to Israel's Interior Ministry to consider applications for citizenship by same-sex and opposite-sex couples equally under the same terms. Politics Israel's Labor Party and Meretz support LGBT rights, as did the now-defunct Shinui. Under Tzipi Livni, Kadima has reached out to the LGBT community. Other minor liberal or progressive political parties support a similar platform as well, including the Greens and the Green Leaf Party. Officials from a number of parties, including Yael German of Yesh Atid, Limor Livnat of the ruling Likud-Beiteinu, and openly gay Nitzan Horowitz of Meretz, back same-sex marriage and have pledged support for LGBT causes. Representatives from other parties, including Hatnuah, Hadash and the Labor Party, have also pledged support. Minister and MK Limor Livnat, however, did state that getting the ruling Likud-Beiteinu to legislate for same-sex marriage would be difficult due to differing opinions concerning the issue within the party, but promised to do her utmost to get her party behind the issue. Ahead of the April 2019 legislative election, Yisrael Beiteinu, one of the more conservative political parties in the country, announced that its "doors were open to everyone" regardless of their sexual orientation. On 22 October 2002, Meretz MK Uzi Even made history by becoming