Only 2.3% of Israeli Divorced Dads Have Custody?!
December 5th, 2007 by Glenn Sacks, MA for Fathers & Families
"Attorney Chagit Lev...said that there is a 'critical need for a study carried out by objective groups'...She dismissed claims by the Ministry representatives that many of the fathers cut off from their children had no desire to pursue the relationships. 'I have grown men in my office on a regular basis, crying like babies for me to help them be able to see their children.'"
A new Israeli parliamentary subcommittee is holding hearings on fathers' rights and child custody. It is claimed in the hearing that only 2.3 percent of divorced men in Israel have custody of their children--amazing.
Some other highlights:
1) "Dr. Orli Iness of the University of Haifa told the committee that 'when the Knesset adopted legislation on the matter of protecting women from violence, it was reported that about 20 percent of complaints filed were false, but it adopted the legislation as the price to pay in order to protect the weak… Presently, there have been reports that in some precincts the figure [for false complaints] is as high as 50%. If that had been the case at the time, the Knesset would have thought differently about the matter.'
"Iness said that one of the main problems surrounding the issue is the lack of organized impartial studies on the phenomenon.
“They should be carried out. It is not such a difficult task."
2) "Moshe Aberjil, who heads one of the fathers’ rights groups present at the meeting, complained that the Welfare Ministry’s forms are all worded with gender inflections that are only suitable for complaints of violence carried out by men, when it has been clearly shown that female domestic violence is a reality. Other representatives alleged that police do not follow up on complaints filed by men, indicating an order from above not to pursue such investigations."
3) "Dr. Michael Kronghaus of the Israeli Center for the Defense of the Child said...that only 2.3 percent of divorced men in Israel have custody of their children, whereas in France and Germany the figure is around 20 percent and in the US 35 percent. 'Are Jewish fathers so much worse?' he asked.
4) "Attorney Chagit Lev...said that there is a 'critical need for a study carried out by objective groups'...She dismissed claims by the Ministry representatives that many of the fathers cut off from their children had no desire to pursue the relationships. 'I have grown men in my office on a regular basis, crying like babies for me to help them be able to see their children. I am not sitting here today for the sake of the men or the women, though, but for the children themselves… Pretending that domestic violence is only a male issue leaves thousands of children in the care of violent women – and 80 percent of kids raised with parental violence go on to use violence against their own kids.'"
5) "[Attorney] Ariel Levine, said the heart of the legislative defect enabling the crisis is the ease with which a woman, on her own or counseled by a lawyer to do so to help her case, can walk into a police station and receive a 10-day restraining order against a father without any surcharge or bond posted. 'Then, the judges will often leave it in place without any proof because nobody wants to later be known as the judge who let the potential murderer go. The result is a huge number of men, good fathers, upstanding citizens that fall victim to this system.'"
To learn more, see New Knesset Sub-C'tee Examines Discrimination Against Fathers. Thanks to Gil Ronen of www.familism.org.
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December 5th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Mother of God...that's seems like it should be way too extreme of a statistic to be true. Just...wow...
December 5th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
"....whereas in France and Germany the figure is around 20 percent and in the US 35 percent."
I doubt that 35% of US divorced fathers have primary custody of the children. I think the percentage is much lower.
The problems faced by fathers is international.
France has a rebuttable presumption for shared parenting.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Some of your old readers remember a column you wrote ages ago on Jewish women and male-bashing. Put that together with this and...hmmm.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I have a feeling the 35% includes widowers.
Interesting what happens in these countries where the men try to "protect the weak."
December 5th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
""Iness said that one of the main problems surrounding the issue is the lack of organized impartial studies on the phenomenon.
“They should be carried out. It is not such a difficult task."
Isn't that what guys like Glen have been saying all along?
December 5th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
According to the US Census, roughly 15% of single parents who have the children with them the majority of the time are fathers.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
I agree with you guys completely. It should not be 2.3%. It should be 4 or 5%.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
4 or 5%?
Care to explain why equal rights should not apply to Israeli men?
This is of course, remembering, that the leading feminist group in Israel OPPOSED shared parenting legislation, with no justifiable reason. No doubt because it benefitted men, who are the enemy.
Just as a side note, have any UK readers seen that article in the Daily Mail today about the Spice Girls and the death of feminism. What a pile of crap! I could point out the misandry and just plain silliness in the article, but I'll let you read it yourself first.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=499729&in_page_id=1879
Of course the Daily Mail has no section for male readers and never portrays things from a male point of view. It's seems that left and right wing papers feel the need to point out how oppressed women are on a daily basis.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
@ Article Callum posted: weird. On one hand, that author laments the decline of religion, lack of morals, and contraception for causing problems in the intro paragraph, and then on the other goes on to say what a great thing Girl Power was? That must be some funky politics they believe in; if this is any indication, they seem to believe in both of the far-right and far-left ideological aspects that do the most to harm Men's Rights, at the same time. That's amazing.
Oh, and...BOY POWER FOREVER!!!!
Anyone offended by that? Yes? Well, tough shit, if a phrase like "Girl POWER" (doesn't the KKK chant "White Power"?) can be considered such a great thing.
@MomAdvocate
So...correct me if I'm wrong, but are you saying that you're in favor of fathers having their children taken away from them and legally being prevented from having their own flesh-and-blood in their home with them on a regular basis?
You do realize that "MomAdvocate" doesn't have to equal "DadOpponent," right?
December 5th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Oh, and one more thing about the article:
It was actually written in the year 2007, going on 2008? Didn't the Spice Girls move out of the mainstream like, 10 years ago? I didn't know people still thought about the Spice Girls anymore, much less considered them representatives of the U.K., as the author claims.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
I doubt that 35% of US divorced fathers have primary custody of the children. I think the percentage is much lower.
You have to remember how custody is defined. I technically have some form of custody over my children (shared legal) while she still has primary physical custody.
Shared legal doesn't mean squat, but it does mean that I have some form of 'custody'
December 5th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
"Shared legal doesn't mean squat, but it does mean that I have some form of 'custody'"
Yes, but then I think that 35% is low if you include shared legal custody.
December 5th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
"It was actually written in the year 2007, going on 2008? Didn't the Spice Girls move out of the mainstream like, 10 years ago? I didn't know people still thought about the Spice Girls anymore, much less considered them representatives of the U.K., as the author claims."
They're currently doing a comeback tour, and releasing a Christmas single. Obviously the author thought it necessary to take the latest craze and show how it hurts women.
I personally don't really like the Spice Girls. But to their credit (or their staff) they were the best media stunt in history.
December 6th, 2007 at 9:51 am
@Tim O'Brien who said, "Interesting what happens in these countries where the men try to "protect the weak."
I'm curious what you mean by this regarding a country like Israel, where women have mandatory Army service.
December 6th, 2007 at 10:01 am
C:
It's quoted from the article.
December 6th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
"Shared legal doesn't mean squat, but it does mean that I have some form of 'custody'"
That's why I prefer the census data. The census doesn't deal in custody, just who actually has the kids more.
And bear in mind that that 15% does include widowers, fathers of kids abandoned by their mothers, and fathers custodial by mutual consent. In fact, these subcategories account for the majority of the 15%.
The figures really show up feminist spin on "custody" for what it is.
December 6th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Didn't Mr. Baskerville's book cite an analysis of detailed statistics from one state in which the percentage was about the same?
December 6th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
nasty input here from the feminists. gee - i guess we are all suprised at that.
maybe someday it will be only 2.3% of women getting any money from men due to men getting joint custody of their children. that would be so great. guess the women's shoe, clothing, makeup, hair etc companies would go under.
December 7th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
AP: "Didn't Mr. Baskerville's book cite an analysis of detailed statistics from one state in which the percentage was about the same?"
Yes. It was initiated by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Using the ambiguity of language the Massachusetts Supreme Court wanted to show a lack of bias. The fake statistic from the study - 70% of men win some form of custody - was printed in USA Today, and was later used by CANOW to show that women are discriminated against in family courts.
The study was debunked. I'll try to find a link.
December 7th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Here's the link:
http://www.breakingthescience.org/SJC_GBC_analysis_intro.php
December 7th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
A result of 2.3% might be a little low if you trust the data from the poorly-designed Massachusetts study.
It wasn't USA Today, but the Washington Times.
December 7th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
Massachusetts...isn't Massachusetts the state which
- had their Speaker of the House of Representatives forced to resign because of perjury (Finneran)
- had WIlliam Bulger the brother one of the FBI's most ten wanted felons ("Whitey Bulger") serving as their Senate President, and then President of their state university
- boarded all the 9/11 hijackers without incident or inconvenience (to the hijackers), and had no security cameras in their "world class, international airport" parking lots or otherwise which captured any prior footage whatsoever the hijackers to confirm who they were and how they arrived, etc.
- had its state supreme court approve gay marriage, while their family courts are dismembering families at a rapid clip
- has been cited as having one of the highest rates of restraining order filings of any state in the U.S.
- has been harboring the same "judge" who threw a man in jail because his pizza shop employer didn't pass his garnished wages through to the state -- a judge who is now under ethical scrutiny
- has been accused of having family courts where audio tapes get doctored (per Mr. Baskerville's book)
That is the same Massachusetts, isn't it?
Just checking.
December 8th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Check out Barb Johnson's website falseallegations.com for more.
Massachusetts government is sick.
But in a non-binding referendum 85% of its citizens in a demographically representative subset of counties supported a rebuttable presumption for shared parenting. The last time I checked, shared parenting received the highest support of all the issues on Governor Deval Patrick's website.
I'm from NY, however, which I believe is the only state that has avoided the abomination known as no-fault divorce.
December 11th, 2007 at 7:21 am
How can that be when every Jew that I talked to seems to at the very least respect their own religion and are proud to be jews. Where did the 10th commandment go? I even use it on all my writings to christians, Thou shalt not covet a man's children. I didn't see any wiggle room for the mother. We claim that this country fears God. (USA) Yet we violate God's law everyday. Women have been emancipated but if we fear God then we all have to agree that children belong to the fathers in the legal sense "the proper and rightful place" to be with the fathers. I am willing to share but I am not giving my children away. They are gifts not by the State from which they were born for the State didn't give them to me. They are a gifts from a higher entity. Let the Jewish State begin to lead and fix that problem for the rest of the world.