Posted on 04/26/2012 6:22:43 AM PDT by Love for Israel
Israeli Fathers Allege Torture in Lawsuits
HOUSTON, TX - April 26, 2012. A federal court in Houston this week held its first hearing on a $20 million lawsuit alleging systematic torture upon divorced fathers in the Israeli judicial and welfare systems. This is one of four lawsuits which Israeli fathers have filed in the United States and Europe. Legal consultants are also helping the Israeli fathers prepare to file lawsuits in Canada. David Weisskopf, the plaintiff in the Houston case, describes the Israeli environment as an ‘open season’ on divorced fathers.
“Men are literally dying,” says Weisskopf. He points out how 45 froze to death on the “tropical” streets in Israel last winter and that the suicide rate among divorced fathers is more than 250 times higher than the overall Israeli population. “These statistics are by far the world’s worst and are thanks to all the lobbying, training and ongoing consultation from the defendants.”
In an unprecedented move, the Houston court is allowing Weisskopf to add parties to his lawsuit regardless of their citizenship. This opens the door for Israeli fathers to join the American lawsuit as well as immigrant fathers who have endured torture in the Israeli judiciary or welfare system. The diversity of plaintiffs will show how widespread and systematic the torture has become in the Israeli judicial and welfare systems.
Nearly two dozen Israeli bureaucrats and their donors have been named as defendants between the four lawsuits – including Israel’s minister of welfare, minister of justice and even a Supreme Court judge. However, the plaintiffs may have a right to add more defendants which then implicates more Israeli bureaucrats and their American donors.
Though all the current defendants have been summoned in the American lawsuits, some of them have not yet filed their appearances. Israeli defendants who fail to appear in American courts may have default judgments entered against them. Plaintiffs may then petition Israeli courts to enforce default foreign judgments.
Legal consultants assisting these fathers in Israel plan to use the same tactics against these Israeli bureaucrats to enforce judgments which the Israeli bureaucrats commonly use to harass divorced fathers in Israel - who cannot declare bankruptcy when these bureaucrats drive them into destitution. These tactics include, stop-orders from leaving the country, revoking driver’s licenses, freezing assets including bank accounts, arrests at 2am and imprisonment in debtor’s prison, garnishing all wages except $375 per month, calling in employers to testify in court, and seeking similar court orders against family members.
Two of the bureaucrats involved in the lawsuits forced Weisskopf to endure an interrogation at their office within hours of his emergency surgery. The interrogation lasted an hour though he was suffering from a fractured sinus and bone cyst at the time. Weisskopf recorded the meeting audibly, superimposed visual animation and posted a three-part satire on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=XBX4CR9aniA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZsZY343KvM&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=kS_54I5dG4s
To date the three-part satire has received over 100,000 views ranking them 40th place as the most-viewed Israeli videos on YouTube. Weisskopf’s inbox has been flooded with messages from police and social workers worldwide denouncing the brutal treatment he endured at the hands of Israeli bureaucrats. Meanwhile Israeli authorities have stonewalled efforts to investigate wrong-doing by their bureaucrats.
The international contact for these lawsuits is the Coalition for Children and the Family in Israel (www.ccfisrael.org). Jury trial on the first lawsuit has been set for May-June 2013.
What a strange situation this is - Israeli fathers are being abused by the Israeli legal system, while their muslim counterparts are given more rights than muslim female mates under sharia law ...
In western countries divorce courts are strongly biased in favor of women.In this country I’ve read that it’s now SOP,when a divorce is initiated,for the woman to charge spousal and/or child abuse.Of course there *are* men who do such things...sadly,more than a few...but not EVERY guy does it.Not even a majority.
And how far behind is the U.S.S.A.
The feminists in the U.S. courts are not far behind from what I read here. In some regards, worse.
Bitter much? If you don’t want to have this happen then don’t get divorced while living in Israel.
I’ve got to think that an appeals court would reverse this inclusion of foreigners beiung affected by foreign courts in a NY minute, as they say. To do otherwise opens the US court system to any number of abuses.
That is so true. I was thinking the same thing myself.
There is a difference between 70% bias and 99% bias. As bias as the American courts are, they base child support on the father’s abilities to pay and do not deliberately drive him to homelessness and then chase after him as a ‘deadbeat dad’.
I do not believe it is legal in the USA to torture divorced fathers. That’s how much more control Israeli feminists have over our government.
Sad but true. It really shouldn’t be that way.
I doubt it for two reasons. Number one, there is a law that has been in force since 1798 called the Alien Tort Claims Act. It specifically allows foreigners to file lawsuits in the USA. Secondly, the Defendants in this case specifically demanded the inclusion of foreign plaintiffs. It would be hard for them to back-peddle on their own demands in an appeal.
That would be nice. However, the feminists really have a strong choke hold on the Israeli family courts.
Perhaps that is why nobody has heard of Henry Youngman.
True. . .but in the US (Texas specifically that I know of), when a father dies and obviously can’t make child support payments, he officially becomes a “deadbeat dad.”
He dies, can’t make payments and the county automatically records him as no longer making payments-—therefore he is a deadbeat dad.
He will remain on the deadbeat list, inflating the numbers, until someone petitions the court to remove him from the child support list.
All “deadbeat dad” stats are suspect in my mind.
How many more ‘deadbeat dads’ would there be in Texas if courts were to order child support payments that ranged from 85% to 400% of most fathers’ incomes? That is the reality in Israel.
How many more ‘deadbeat dads’ would there be in Texas if courts were to order child support payments that ranged from 85% to 400% of most fathers’ incomes? That is the reality in Israel.
When I read the title of that act, I picture foreigners suign a US party in a US court because the US court would have jurisdiction. Foreigners suing other foreigners in the US over an event in a foreign country makes no sense. Or did I mis-read the case entirely?
Good question. The issue is whether ‘Alien’ refers to the offshore tort, the plaintiff or the defendant. Certainly the tort takes place offshore under the ATCA. In 1991 congress resolved the vagueness of the wording by saying both Americans and aliens can be plaintiffs, there should be at least one American defendant and there can also be alien defendants. In these four cases referenced in the article, there are both Americans and aliens named both as plaintiffs and as defendants.
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