Change in Israeli child custody laws to correct bias against fathers

YNET   The changes in regulations for divorced parents are set to be implemented, despite them not including the absolute cancelation of the Infancy Custody Clause.

A change in the clause, however, will allow fathers to take custody over children who have reached the age of two years, compared to the previous clause of six years.


Professor Dan Shanit, who headed the committee on changes regarding divorced parents, said the Infancy Custody Clause needed to be canceled completely, which says that children up to the age of six can only be under the custody of the mother.

Former justice minister Yaakov Ne'eman had already sent out the memo last year on the Parents and Children Law, which was based on Shanit's conference. The clause that stood out in the memo was the change in the custody law. It received a lot of criticism, mainly from women's organizations.

According to the law, when parents divorce and can't reach an agreement on who will be considered the children's guardian, the courts can establish that children under the age of six will remain with their mother, under the Infancy Custody Clause. As a result, the other, older siblings also remain under the custody of the mother so as not to separate them. Divorced fathers have been condemning the clause for many years, claiming it is automatically discriminatory. [...]