The individual's right to conjugal life without state interference is so sacrosanct that even in cases when the Israeli is not married to his illegal alien partner, the judges order the state not to harm the conjugal bond. Thus, for example, Judge Micha Lindenstrauss, president of the Haifa District Court, issued a precedent-setting verdict about two months ago forbidding the Interior Ministry from deporting an illegal Filipina woman living with her partner, who has not yet divorced his wife.

Despite all this, the ministry's Population Administration decided that Yaniv Levy, 28, of Tel Aviv, is not married to his wife, Irena Bahadneva, 24, of Belarus.

The couple was married in a civil ceremony some two years ago. Not only did the Population Administration reject the validity of the marriage, it also ruled at the beginning of the month that the conjugal bond was fictitious.

Consequently, the authorities arrested Bahadneva, who is being held in custody in the Tzohar prison compound near the Rafah checkpoint, pending deportation.

During the past month, Bahadneva has been arrested twice. At first, the Tzohar compound tribunal decided to release her on NIS 25,000 bail and gave her six weeks to set her affairs in order, otherwise she would have to leave Israel. But last Monday, only three weeks later, Bahadneva was arrested again. This time the Population Administration ignored the court's previous decision to give her time to settle her legal status. It also ignored the couple's petition to the High Court of Justice to order the Interior Ministry to recognize their marriage.

High Court Justice Edmond Levy has ordered the ministry to explain its decision regarding Bahadneva in two weeks. On Tuesday, the State Prosecution will have to explain why the ministry insists on deporting Bahadneva, despite her marriage to an Israeli and the fact that they are sharing a home.

"The petitioners' marriage is real and sincere and the Interior Ministry clerks are ignoring the fact that Bahadneva married Levy and the two have been living together for two years and run a business together - a cafe," said attorney Zvi Rish in the petition. In addition, Bahadneva is undergoing an Orthodox conversion to Judaism.

On Friday, the Tzohar compound tribunal decided to keep Bahadneva in detention unless she posted NIS 50,000 in bail.

"The clerks decided to fight my wife and myself in revenge for our petitioning the High Court," says Yaniv Levy. "The huge bails we were required to post, totaling NIS 75,000, and the legal representation have ruined me economically."

The Interior Ministry's systematic rejection of all the evidence of the couple's being a family - the marriage certificate, the joint apartment rental lease, the bills sent to the apartment, the affidavits by Levy's friends testifying to the fact that he lives with his wife - angers Levy.

"I don't understand the clerks," he says. "It is very simple to see that we are telling the truth. They can visit our home without warning and see that we live as husband and wife.