The Haifa Family Court deliberated recently on a filing by an Israeli woman seeking sole custody of her 5-year-old daughter, after a U.S. court ruled the child must travel to see her father in the States, for extensive periods.
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The father, an American citizen, came to Israel to complete his post-doctorate studies and met the Israeli woman during his stay. She has claimed that after he left the country, she discovered she was pregnant with their child.
In her filings to the court, the woman said the American initially denied he had parented and later changed his position and convinced the mother to relocate to the U.S. so that all three could live together as a family. But he soon became abusive and attempted to separate mother and child by filing false complaints with local authorities that resulted in her arrest and a court order being issued, banning her from seeing her daughter.
In her filing to the Israeli court, she claimed that she had used her pension funds to finance a lawsuit that would allow her to return to Israel with her daughter. She also claimed to have been forced to sign a 'draconian' agreement drafted by the father's attorney as a condition for her return to Israel and that her signature was obtained under duress, and therefore, the agreed-upon custody arrangements should be nullified.
The local attorney representing the American father argued that the signed agreement was binding and that the child should travel to visit with her father but the court had a different view.
The judge said the father had not taken the reasonable step that would justify enforcing the findings of a court outside Israel and determined that the mother should have full custody and the child should not be made to travel to the U.S. and can remain in Israel, where she was born.