Israel is a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. What this means is that if your spouse has kidnapped your child/ren and taken him or her / them to Israel, that you have a legal course of action to follow.
The Hague convention provides for a “fast track” for hearings over issues related to the children, and basically allows for a quick trial in front of the Israeli Family court where the sole issue is in what jurisdiction legal disagreements regarding children should be held (i.e. Israel or the country the children were kidnapped from), and where the children should be pending final adjudication.
In order to make use of the Hague Convention, you must act quickly – i.e. you are not able to wait a year and then bring the suit because then you will have waived your rights.
Bringing a suit pursuant to the Hague Convention freezes other lawsuits concerning the children that have already been filed. In other words, if your spouse kidnaps the children to Israel and then files for custody (in either the Rabbinic or the Family courts), those suits will be frozen until the court hearing the suit pursuant to the Hague Convention decides where the custody issues should be heard – in Israel or in the home country the child/ren was/were taken.
This is a complicated area of family law, and if your children have been kidnapped to Israel, you should call our offices right away. We have experience in this area, and have even had children forcibly put onto a plane back to their home country by the Israeli police – against the will of the kidnapping parent
