We hear the name "The Hague" mainly when the International Court of Justice in The Hague opens an investigation against the State of Israel or IDF soldiers, but it turns out that The Hague also affects the lives of completely normal mothers and children, even those who have never served in the army.
The Hague Convention, and in its full name: the Convention on the Civil Aspects of the International Abduction of Children, is a treaty signed in The Hague in 1980, designed to prevent the abduction of a child by one parent after a family dispute or divorce.
According to the Convention, which was also signed by the State of Israel, a child may not be transferred from one state to another without the consent of his parents or guardian;
If the child has been smuggled to another country, a request can be made for his return, and the signatory states undertake to return him to the country from which he was abducted.
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But while the treaty is designed to protect children from abduction, it sometimes actually harms them.
Yad Laachim occasionally encounters complex cases of Jewish women abroad with a non-Jewish spouse, and after they decide to leave the spouse, encounter the consequences of the Convention on their lives and the lives of their children.
"The purpose of the Hague Convention is a good cause," said Miri Itzkowitz, deputy director of the assimilation department at Yad Laachim, which treats women and girls who are in contact with non-Jews and ask for help, "but sometimes it is problematic because it does not address women in distress." .
According to her, every year about ten women apply to Yad Laachim for help in case of a dispute over custody with a non-Jewish parent, "but we also receive information about women who are considering entering into such a relationship. That if she gives birth abroad, she will not be able to return with him to Israel until he is 18 years old.
Unfortunately, for the most part love is dazzling.
We try, but we do not always know if the message was received. "
"The women who turn to us are women who are in a violent and problematic relationship and experience alienation and isolation due to living in a foreign country. Such a mother feels that the whole world is closing in on her. It is not always understood that a minor needs to grow up with his mother. "Even if the children experience harassment from the father and the mother complains, she will not always receive relief from the court, sometimes because of language difficulties, sometimes because of bureaucracy or mistrust, and we are the ones who face the grief and suffering of these children and mothers."
"Ultimately, from the point of view of the law, the mother 'kidnaps' the minors," Itzkovich explains, "but when a mother acts like this, it is simply because she has no other choice. We meet women in very difficult situations, who are abused and in a foreign country, without support. "When they manage to get out of there and come with the child to visit their parents' homeland, in the end, when the last day comes and they have to go abroad, they just can't do it."
In such a case, the father appeals to the European Court of Human Rights, from which the court in the country examines the matter.
"The mother should hire a lawyer immediately," says Itzkowitz, "when the cost of legal representation starts at NIS 150,000. Unfortunately, but this is hopeless in advance. Usually, the court will oblige the mother to return to the country of residence of the father. If she refuses, "They will force the children on a plane and send them abroad, and will also issue an Interpol arrest warrant against the mother."
To this day, Jewish women from Tanzania, South Africa, Sweden, Hungary, New Zealand, Spain, Greece, and various countries in the United States have applied to the organization - and recently, following the war in Kazakhstan, a former Jewish resident of Yad Laachim also turned to Yad LaHaim. In fact, the only way to persuade the court to leave the child in the hands of the 'kidnapping' parent is in a case of danger to the child's well, so that the case of the mother from Kazakhstan may turn out to be a quick fix, but in the vast majority of cases there is nothing to do. That is why it is necessary not to go to a place like this in advance. "
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