Israel
Removes Biased Child Custody Law Against Fathers, Dads Address
False Abuse Charges
By
Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem
--- January 20, 2012 .... For many divorced fathers in Israel,
the declaration yesterday by Israel Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman
that divorced parents must now share custody of children, may
have come too late. Neeman has accepted recommendations by the
Schnit Committee that joint parental custody be ordered in divorce
cases involving young children, which the law defines as those
up to age 6. Until now, most divorced fathers became visitors,
being limited to seeing their children only a few hours a week.
As
the new law comes into affect, thousands of dads in Israel would
have lost any opportunity of fatherhood due to the fact that their
children have already grown up or that their children suffer from
PAS - Parental Alienation Syndrome. With PAS the children become
alienated against the father as the mother has pushed him away
and brainwashed the children that he is of no worth, or perhaps
even bad for whatever reason she creates.
But,
it is still a time to celebrate. A time to restore faith in the
justice system in Israel which until now practiced gender bias
discrimination. A time to rejoice for the many children who will
now have a father to learn from, gain confidence and be there
at all times.
The
new child custody law will revoke article 25 of the Israel Capacity
and Guardianship Law, known as the Tender Years Presumption Law.
The old child custody law, though stated to be used until the
age of 6, was actually implemented by the family courts and Revacha
- child welfare social workers in Israel throughout the child's
life.
In
making his decision to accept the Schnit Committee recommendations,
which have been debating this issue for 5 years, Israel Justice
Minister Yaakov Neeman thanked the caring and dedicated fathers
who urged for it's passing. Neeman knew that for many of the divorced
fathers it was too late to restore the father child relationship
but congratulated their sincere efforts for creating a better,
healthy relationship for future parents.
When
the fathers saw their protests were falling on deaf ears in Israel,
they approached the UN. The UN assigned the United Nations Committee
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to investigate and recently
demanded that the Israel government amend its laws in order to
ease the burden on fathers seeking full or partial custody of
their children.
At a special
hearing in Geneva last month, the UN committee expressed concern
that fathers embroiled in custody disputes in Israel are not always
treated fairly under the Capacity and Guardianship Law.
In its summation
of hearing about the economic, social and cultural situation in
member countries, the committee called directly on the state to
make sure that custody of children up to the age of six is not
always given to mothers and asked the government to find a way
to ensure that child support awards do not lead to an inadequate
standard of living for the father.
The UN committee
was responding to a report submitted by the Coalition for Children
and Family, a non-profit organization that unites several bodies
engaged in fighting for fathers rights.
Alongside
complaints of social and economic difficulties faced by the men
and accusations that in general more attention is paid to womens
rights, the CCF also outlined legislation it calls blatantly
discriminatory against men.
The
parliament and judges refuse to eliminate discriminatory preferences
and presumptions which favor women. That is coupled with automatic
and instant decisions in favor of women, compared with deliberate
procrastination in disposing of motions filed by men, general
attitude of ridiculization and marginalization of all men, labeling
all men as potential aggressors and dangerous to spouses and children,
said the UN in it's findings.
It turns
the lives of men unbearable, driving most of them into poverty,
inability to carry jobs, imprisonment and a large number of suicides
- 200 suicides a year, eight times greater than everyone else,
and 50 percent of the national average number of occurrences.
Was
the UN investigation and calling upon Israel instrumental in the
Ministry of Justice decision?
"Absolutely,"
said Daniel Zer, a father who has not seen his son for more than
two years. "As Minister of Justice in Israel he is responsible
to report to the UN periodically about the implementation of human
rights. Israel has been battered enough by the UN on manufactured
charges of human rights abuses against Palestinians, the Justice
Ministry did not need real, documented charges of discrimination
against fathers to overshadow and top that."
But
the battle for equality is still far from over.
"As
soon as the Minister of Justice announced intentions to adopt
the Schnitt Committee parental equality recommendations, the media
was filled with reactions from the militant feminist groups,"
said Zer. "The Rackman Center, Naamat, WIZO and other feminist
groups arguing that parental equality means that women may lose
the children as bargaining chips, and that child support may be
reduced to compensate for enhanced parenting time with the fathers."
"The
Coalition for Children and Family (ccfisrael.org)
reacted to the news stating that the version of parental equality
recommendations adopted by the Minister of Justice is still a
far cry from true equality. In fact, it is a booby trapped version
of equality that contains built in mechanisms to elevate the mothers'
chances of winning custody battles. In particular, too much emphasis
is made to the question of who was the "primary caretaker",
rather than who will be the friendly, responsible parent who will
accommodate the non-custodian's maximum and meaningful parenting
time."
"The
big hoopla of the feminist organizations against the recommendations
adopted by the Justice Minister are merely a diversion from the
real legal issues that the family court Judges will have to actually
use. The feminists naturally want an emphasis on the division
of domestic chores during the marriage, "primary caretaker",
which is anachronistic and does not fit modern families anymore,
while the rest of the world looks at the "friendly parent
doctrine", i.e. - which parent is stable and secure enough
to allow the other parent full access without quarrels, false
domestic violence complaints, and without periods of parental
alienation", said Zer.
As
fathers in Israel appear to gain some assemblance of equality
and basic human rights, one must expect that a few mothers will
try other means to hurt their ex and their children. In retaliation
for informing child welfare that a mother was physically abusing
her daughter, one father in Tel Aviv was recently accused by two
women of child abuse to his own daughter. The father, a highly
respected officer in the IDF reserves, works with the Israel Border
Police and was chosen by Israel to fly to Haiti to help save 53
young children after the 2010 earthquake, was immediately separated
from his children and ordered to see them only at a Mercaz Kesher
or Visitation Center.
There was no investigation by the family court or by child welfare.
The child was briefly asked if she was ever hurt by her father
and she responded: "no". All the same this caring, responsible
and loving father had to hire an attorney, a forensic psychologist
and even volunteered to take a polygraph to clear his name and
restore normal relations with his kids.
There
is now documented evidence that the mother who made these false
child abuse charges hired both women to discredit the father.
One woman was offered both money and an airplane ticket to Australia
immediately following her accusations to the police and the other
women has since gone into hiding.
Fathers
4 Justice Israel is now recommending to the The Coalition
for Children and Family to lobby the Israel Justice Ministry
to order immediate investigations into reports of child abuse
for the well being of the child and the father accused. That these
investigations take no more than 48 hours to determine if the
child was ever in danger and if not to clear the father's name,
avoid visitation centers and to allow charges of perjury, abuse
of court, libel, slander and criminal harassment to be filed against
the parent creating fictitious charges.
The
above news content was edited and SEO optimized in Israel by the
Media Group - Israel, New York, Hartford.