Child Custody / Visitation / Contact

One alternative is  joint or mutual custody, which is gradually becoming more common nowadays than before. This is where the children stay together and the parents are joint custodians . This can operate  in different ways. The first option is where the children stay together but spend part of each week during the school year with each parent and every other weekend.  The second option is that they spend a set period of time with each parent alternately . For example, they can spend a  complete week  staying with one parent and the following one with the other parent. During the week that they spend with one parent arrangement can be made for some form of contact with the other parent.

Another alternative is to ‘split’ custody i.e. where there are more than one children, for them to be split up, so that at least one of them lives with each parent, and spends time with the other during visitation. It means that  brothers and sisters can lose out on the usual experience of living together, though it is sometimes preferable, depending on the particular circumstances. As a rule courts do not like to separate siblings.

Where parents live far away from one another within Israel, one parent can be awarded sole custody, but appropriate  visitation arrangements will be far from standard, but cater to their particular circumstances. For example, mid-week visitation may be impractical because of the geographical distance involved, but may be every weekend, or most weekends during the school year, and for most or all of the school holidays, for example.