What to Do If Your Partner Leaves Israel with Your Children
This article addresses what to do if your partner leaves Israel with your children. If your partner, with whom you share custody, leaves Israel with your children or retains them outside of Israel without your permission, this is considered child abduction.
Categories for Child Abduction
There are two types of child abduction. In the first case, a child is taken from the country with one parent without the permission of the second parent. We often see this happen in cases where one parent has citizenship abroad and wishes to take the children and raise them in the other country.
In the second case, a child is retained in a foreign country without the permission of both parents. This often happens when one parent decides to take the children abroad, and perhaps under false pretenses, indicates they will leave for a short time or vacation (with the agreement of the other parent), but then they refuse to return with the children. Both of these cases — removing and retaining children without the permission of both parents — is considered child abduction so long as both parents had custody rights that were given in the primary country of residence.
It is important to note that a parent can argue for their custody rights over children if they have been implementing them. For example, if a father has visitation or shared custody of the children, but he does not implement this, and the mother takes the children to live abroad, the father will have a harder time making his case in Israeli courts because the law protects the rights of parents who are implementing their custody rights. That said, it is still the default for a court to return children to their primary country of residence, but it may be harder if a parent had not been implementing their custody rights prior to abduction.
Legal Steps Available
Israel has signed the Hague Convention, which was put in place to protect children and parental custody rights. As a result, there are legal procedures in place to quickly move child abduction cases through the Israeli court system.
While you do not need to hire a private attorney to take legal action, having an attorney working on your case can help make it easier and smoother for you. We discuss legal steps to take and how the procedure works in Israel in this article.
If your child was taken to a country that is also a signatory to the Hague Convention, the process will be much quicker as there will be common legal basis from which Israeli authorities can work with the foreign authorities. If the country your child was taken to has not signed the Hague Convention, the process is much more complex, but it is still possible to take legal action.
This Series of Articles
This article is one in a longer series addressing numerous issues around child abduction, including how to choose a child abduction lawyer, Israeli child abduction laws, and more.
Contact Us
Advocate Anat Levi from our law firm specializes in Israel family law, under which child abduction falls. Please contact us with any questions or for legal assistance, and we would be happy to help you.
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