Israeli Parlimentary Activities
On March 18th we initiated a special session of the Committee for the Advancement of Women in the Knesset on March 18th on the subject of "The Competition to Acquire Jurisdiction in Divorce Proceedings in Israel and the Resulting Harm to Women".
In November 2007, ICAR initiated and participated in the Knesset Committee for Children's Rights on the subject of the harm caused to children in cases of get reclacitrance, due to the fact that parents may waive some of their rights in order to obtain the get . The purpose of the meeting was to consider ways to safeguard their rights.
During the year ICAR has worked hard to promote their initiative to amend the Division of Property Law which would lessen the blackmail opportunities in the divorce proceedings. The amendment is at the stage of its final vote and we hope that it will pass soon.
ICAR has also called for the enactment of the law that would enable the Knesset to annul the money of the marriage and thus annul the marriage in cases where the Rabbinical Courts have decided that the get must be given, but the husband refuses to do so ("Hafkaat Kidushin").
ICAR was instrumental in reducing the harm to women in divorce proceedings in the government proposed Law to expand the authority of the Rabbinical Courts.
ICAR led a successfull media campaign demanding that only worthy rabbinical court judges be voted into office. The candidates and voting process, that were previously dealt with surreptitiously, were brought to the forefront of the Israeli public awareness. After much controversy and court petitions, 19 new Rabbinical Court Judges were chosen, a third of them fulfilled the criteria set out in the law for the desirable judge.