Why does the US not enforce child abduction laws in the Shomron

The gett refuser affair continues to hit headlines, as his father, a well-known pillar of the Chassidish community, is detained in Israel as an attempt to us him as a trading card against his son.

“B’Chadrei Chareidim” exposed the full version of the husband’s claim and his words that he agrees to give the gett on the condition that the deliberations take place in the US, and allowed to be in contact with his children.

It turns out that the matter also has very heavy international consequences since the husband has turned to the US government and demanded the return of his children who were kidnapped by their mother, according to Hague international treaties
Surprisingly, Americans replied that since the children and their mother live in a settlement (Kedumim), which is outside the territory of the State of Israel and the Israeli law, the Hague treaties do not apply.

This is a legal gap that can apply in similar cases of child abduction, where living in the Yehuda and Shomron areas can prevent any legal option of the extradition and return of the children.

The Hague treaties, signed 1980, determine that the custody of a child will be in the place of their permanent residence and it is prohibited to transfer a child from country to country without the consent of both parents. However, as evident from the document exposed here by “B’Chadrei Chareidim” for the first time, in an event that a parent abducted a child and established their home in a settlement, there is no law that obligates the return of the child to their previous residence.

As stated, the husband turned to the US government ten years ago and demanded that his children residing in Israel against his will, be returned to the US, as is required by the treaty, but the government’s response was that they're in a settlement in the west bank, and as such, the treaty does not apply.

A legal source has informed “B’Chadrei Chareidim”: “This situation is quite bizarre because it essentially takes away the State of Israel’s obligation to prevent child abduction. If, as the US claims, the treaty does not apply to the west bank, anyone can kidnap his children and transfer them to any of the settlements in the West Bank without any intervention on behalf of the State.

The time has come to apply the Israeli law in the Yehuda and Shomron regions in a way that does not give foreign governments an opening to exclude these areas from our control.”

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!