Israel Fathers Child Custody Rights Groups Intensify Demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Ra'anana

Israeli fathers protest against gender bias discrimination
in child custody court decisions in Tel Aviv, Israel.

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Ra'anana, Israel ---- March 16....(INA) - Fathers and children rights custody groups in Israel protesting gender bias discrimination in court custody cases have intensified their public demonstrations.

Last week hundreds of divorced and single fathers met in Tel Aviv to demand joint and or equal custody in a non-violent protest covered by both Israel TV and several local newspapers. The fathers are demanding that the Israel Knesset, Israel family court judges and Israel child welfare departments adopt reforms in the existing Israel Family Custodian Act of 1962 which states that all children under the age of six will automatically have custody under their mother, unless the mother is violent, drug abuser or negligent.

 Fathers 4 Justice Israel hijacked all media attention at the Ra'anana annual marathon race this past weekend, with both fathers and their children lining up at the starting line of the Ra'anana run with signs stating: "Children Need Fathers, Not Visitors".

When the fathers confronted a smiling Ra'anana Mayor Nahum Hofree, Hofree had a difficult time reading the sign in English. The fathers translated the protest signs and the Hofree smile quickly evaporated. Nachum Hofree is responsible for the city of Ra'anana Child Welfare department which has been documented to practice gender bias discrimination against men.

The fathers, who had registered in the 3k Ra'anana Fun Race, ran the course with their children holding up the purple heart protest signs. The general public which witnessed the father's and children's rights demonstration in Ra'anana Park applauded and encouraged their efforts. The dads stated that all they simply want is to spend more quality parenting time with their children. And that their children are begging for it as well.

Joint custody in Israel is rare. Most couples who divorce in Israel find it difficult to decide on anything together. Without the cooperation of both parents in Israel, their is no joint custody or shared parenting. Israel family courts will only accept joint custody arrangements when both sides agree. The father is cast away by the mother, the justice and child welfare systems in Israel as a second class citizen. The dad turns into a "cash machine" paying child support every month while being denied equal access to their children. As a result, children become alienated from their fathers suffering from Parental Child Alienation Syndrome, crying from the immediate and long term adverse behavioral effects of divorce and separation for years to come.

The Israel Fathers Rights Association, Horut Shava, Fathers 4 Justice Israel and the Israel Fathers Advocacy Council with the aid of several leading and respected child psychologists are now preparing material and expert testimony for the Knesset to change a law from 1962 which has destroyed the basic civil rights of both divorced fathers and children.

Fathers demonstrating for reforms in joint custody laws in Israel protested at the Ra'anana 3k Fun Race.
Clowns who were hired to entertain children at Ra'anana Park were pleased to join the demonstration.

Psychologist Robert Bauserman, Ph.D., of AIDS Administration/Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in Baltimore, Maryland conducted a meta-analysis of 33 studies between 1982 to 1999 that examined 1,846 sole-custody and 814 joint-custody children. The studies compared child adjustment in joint physical or joint legal custody with sole-custody settings and 251 intact families. Joint custody was defined as either physical custody - where a child spends equal or substantial amounts of time with both parents or shared legal custody - where a child lives with primarily one parent but both parents are involved in all aspects of the child's life. An American Psychological Association research article on joint custody, equal custody and shared parenting appeared in the March 2002 issue of the Journal of Family Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

The research documents that children in joint custody arrangements had less behavior and emotional problems, had higher self-esteem, better family relations and school performance than children in sole custody arrangements. And these children were as well-adjusted as intact family children on the same measures, said Bauserman, "probably because joint custody provides the child with an opportunity to have ongoing contact with both parents."

These findings indicate that children do not actually need to be in a joint physical custody to show better adjustment but just need to spend substantial time with both parents, especially with their fathers, said Bauserman. Also, joint custody couples reported less conflict, possibly because both parents could participate in their children's lives equally and not spend the time arguing over childcare decisions. Unfortunately a perception exists that joint custody is more harmful because it exposes children to ongoing parental conflict. In fact, the studies in this review found that sole-custody parents reported higher levels of conflict.

The APA states that: "It is important to recognize that the results do not support joint custody in all situations. When one parent is abusive or neglectful or has a serious mental or physical health problem, sole-custody with the other parent would clearly be preferable." The judges, lawyers, social workers, psychologists and other professionals involved in divorce counseling and litigation should be aware of these findings to make informed decisions of what environment is best for a child in a custody situation.

Furthermore, to address the question of how much the parents' emotional health compared with the custody arrangement influenced the children's adjustment, Bauserman explained that custody arrangement seemed to have more influence. By statistically controlling for past parental conflict (which indicates parental maladjustment), the joint custody children still were significantly better adjusted. This result was also found in other studies cited in Bauserman's review. More primary research is needed, said Bauserman, "on the past and current adjustment of joint custody and sole custody parents before this question can be completely answered."

The article: "Child Adjustment in Joint-Custody Versus Sole-Custody Arrangements: A Meta-Analytic Review," was written by Robert Bauserman, Ph.D., AIDS Administration/Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; in the Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 16, No. 1.

Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office or at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/fam16191.pdf

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 155,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 53 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.

Findings largely support the argument that family structure influence child development through its impact on family processes. In other words, children of divorce are at risk for adjustment problems because their parents are less likely to engage in competent, consistent parenting and are more likely to engage in conflict exchanges than parents who are married to each other. Divorce, with its emotional turmoil, time demands and often financial stress increases the custodial mother's own chances of becoming depressed, which in turn tends to disrupt the quality of her parenting, Simons explains. This, in turn, increases the child's risk for adjustment problems.

Compared to fathers in intact families, the divorced, non-residential dads were less likely to help their children solve problems, discuss standards of conduct or enforce discipline, increasing the probability that boys would display conduct problems. "It is essential, especially for sons, that fathers continue to function as a parent," the APA emphasizes. "Simply showing the kids a good time and being a pal doesn't make any difference in terms of developmental outcomes for kids."
But the worst problem that many divorced dads face is being separated from their children and being termed "visitors" by a narcissistic mother who uses an archaic gender biased Israel custody law from 1962, which states that the child automatically goes to the mother with full custody till the age of six.

Many times child welfare wants to assist the father but must wait for the Israel court to have child welfare request more or equal time with the father.

Fathers are allowed to carry M-16's in the Israel Defense Forces
and the police but not allowed to carry their own children.

"When couples start talking divorce - they need mediators, not attorneys," says Drora Burnstein, a child psychologist in Tel Aviv. "The attorneys live off of their conflict. The first measure they suggest is to stop all communication, as they believe that communication can be used against the other party in a legal case. These attorneys create what is known as the 'deathblow' for the child to have any sense of present or future family stability."

"The Israel Coalition of Family and Child Custody Support will continue to intensify their educational awareness campaign in Israel addressing the suffering that children experience as a result of their fathers being separated from them by Israel family courts and Israel child welfare departments which still operate under discriminating gender bias laws that go back to 1962," said Niv Amit, director of Israel Fathers Injured By Israel Judge Rivka Mekayes.