Violence

Firstly, children can give evidence and in civil proceedings at the family court the judge can see them privately in chambers. As children in a family dispute are prone to incitement or influence from the other parent, although the weight attributed to their testimony will be less than that of an independent witness. Furthermore, recordings of phone conversations and proper transcripts of these can be acceptable as evidence, too. Having said this, it is only in exceptional circumstances that the court will allow minor children to give evidence against one parent, because of the implications that this would be likely to have on their relationship with the parent against whom they give evidence

Yes. The Penal Law was amended in 2002 in relation to this. An alleged victim of sexual offences committed against him/her as a child has ten years after reaching adulthood to act i.e. until the age of 28. However, if the alleged offence took place more than 10 years ago, then the state will only press charges with the approval of the Attorney General. This is the position regarding offences which under the previous law had not become ‘outdated’ and subject to the Statute of Limitations, on 20/11/2002, when the amendment was published.

Following the passing of proposed amendments to the 1977 Penal Law in November 2002 on their second and third readings in the Israeli parliament, the maximum jail sentence for such an offence has been increased from 16 to 20 years.

Yes, under the 1991 Prevention of Violence Within The Family Act, the court has discretion to attach conditions to its orders. For example, a few years ago The Jerusalem Family Court gave a wide-ranging protection order against a husband/father. It banned him from entering the family home for a month, and forbad him from trying to prevent his family gaining access, and from harassing them for a period of three months. It said that he must deposit a written guarantee to pay his wife a sum of money, if anytime during the coming year, the court held that he had beached these undertakings.

Yes, the fact that family members tend to be at home together, which increases the potential for conflict where the relationships are problematic, makes it more vital to issue an protection in time to cover a religious festival or holiday, where grounds for its granting are proved. The Jerusalem Family Court issued a protection order, keeping the emotionally violent husband/father out of the family home for a month, as a matter of urgency shortly before Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement). It covered the annual Succot (Feast of Tabernacles ) holiday period, too.

Israeli courts have adopted a model for the detection of a ‘dangerous’ family framework which was developed by the Social Services department. The parameters used for the detection of dangerous family frameworks include: the severity of the violent act, the frequency of violence, the degree of reconciliation afterwards, which family members are victims, the relationship between perpetrator and victim(s), the perpetrator’s emotional disturbance, the family members’ perceptions of risk , the victim(s) emotional state, the degree of admission/denial of violence by the perpetrator, suitability of the perpetrator for therapy and degree of accessibility of the perpetrator to weapons and his addictiveness.

In a family violence case The Tel Aviv Family Court stated in 1998 that it had adopted a model for identifying and dealing with different degrees of danger that family violence posed. The model, developed by the Social Services department, recommends that the perpetrator be ordered to keep away from the settlement/town in which the family at risk lives when the danger is rated as high. Where the model identifies the family violence as posing a medium-risk an order can be made just to keep the perpetrator from entering/approaching the home. In both cases treatment is recommended and the perpetrator is supposed to be banned from holding a weapon.

Yes, there is a chance that a family court can cancel an order it has made forbidding a man from entering the home before it expires – if he has actively participated in a rehabilitation program and the reports/recommendations are favourable. It should be stressed that each case is considered on its merits.

Yes – according to a judgment by the Tel Aviv Family Court in the Summer of 1999 when dealing with an application for a protection order for a minor child who was sexually harassed by his paternal grandfather while staying in the later’s home with his father during weekend ‘visitation’. It gave an order forbidding both the father and the grandfather from harassing the boy in any way at all, in any place. To guarantee that they obeyed the order and ensure the minor’s safety, it suspended all weekend visitation rights.

The Anti-Stalking Law of 2001 is designed to combat the behaviour you described. It is designed to tackle non-physical violence,‘threatening harassment’ or ‘stalking’ which prevents a person leading a normal life . The act defines and recognises certain types of behaviour as ‘emotional harassment/violence’. Under this legislation it is possible to get an injunction preventing the stalker from entering somebody’s home, place of work/study etc. Orders against the stalker can be given for up to 6 months, and can be renewed for up to 2 years.