Divorce law traps Australian man in Israel for next 8000 years

Noam Huppert (44) is officially barred from leaving the country until December 31 in the year 9999 – effectively an 8,000-year prison sentence – or until he pays more than USD 3 million in future child support payments

Canberra: An Australian citizen has been trapped in Israel since 2013, and is barred from leaving the country for almost next 8,000 years after his Israeli wife filed for a divorce from him. Noam Huppert (44) is officially barred from leaving the country until December 31 in the year 9999 – effectively an 8,000-year prison sentence – or until he pays more than USD 3 million in future child support payments, reported News.com.au.

Talking to the Australian media outlet, Huppert said he is one among the thousands of foreign men to fall victim to a little-known local divorce law, that has been dubbed as “draconian and excessive” by human rights activists.

Huppert moved to Israel in 2012, after his former spouse returned to the country the previous year, to be closer to his two young children. Soon after, his enraged ex-wife filed a case in Israeli court, which issued a ‘stay-of-exit order’ against him due to his “future debt” of 5000 Israeli shekels per month, until both children turn 18.

“The total in the year 2013 was roughly USD 3.34 million,” Huppert, who works as an analytical chemist for a pharmaceutical company told News.com.au. Until he pays whole amount, the Australian is barred from leaving the country for even for holiday or work.

Now, Huppert wants to raise awareness about little-known Divorce law. He said Australian citizens have been “persecuted by the Israeli ‘justice’ system only because they were married to Israeli women”. “I am one of them,” he said told the website, adding he wants “to help other Australians who may suffer this literally life-threatening experience”.

In United States, the State Department has even warned travellers of the potential issue and notifies its citizens in its Israel travel advisory that civil and religious courts in Israel “actively exercise their authority to bar certain individuals, including nonresidents, from leaving the country until debts or other legal claims against them are resolved”.

In a section titled “court jurisdiction”, US State Department says, “Israel’s religious courts exercise jurisdiction over all citizens and residents of Israel in cases of marriage, divorce, child custody, and child support.”

“US citizens, including those without Israeli citizenship, should be aware that they may be subject to involuntary and prolonged stays (and even imprisonment) in Israel if a case is filed against them in a religious court, even if their marriage took place in the United States, and regardless of whether their spouse is present in Israel.”

The State Department warns the US Embassy “is unable to cancel the debt of a US citizen or guarantee their departure from Israel when they face a bar from leaving the country until debts are resolved,” it adds.

An independent British journalist, Marianne Azizi, who has been campaigning to raise awareness of the issue, told the Australian news portal that  it was “almost impossible to ascertain” the exact number of men affected, but suggested there could be “hundreds” of Australian citizens in the same situation.

Azizi said she could not get numbers from any foreign embassy, and the “closest” she came was a source at the British Embassy before the pandemic, who allegedly “said they were getting around 100 enquiries a month”. 

Azizi began investigating the issue after her own husband got trapped in Israel when he visited the country to see his children. She self-published a book about her experience with the Israeli justice system, Sour Milk and Stolen Honey. “I was later to learn that men were suffering in silence and shame,” she wrote. “The subject was taboo.”

Writing for ‘No Exit Order’ website, Director Sorin Luca, claimed such orders are “almost unheard of in the West, nor used by any countries in the manner it is exercised in Israel”. “A woman can easily put a travel ban on the father, with a demand for child support which can extend to the entire duration of the childhood,” he wrote.

“Once a father has the order, he can be imprisoned for up to 21 days, whether he has the ability to pay or not – without any investigation of his finances. Men are expected to pay 100 per cent or even more of their income to pay for their children,” he added.

Writing for The Times of Israel in 2013, blogger Adam Herscu warned that “If you’re planning on moving to Israel and starting a family there, you need to understand that the family laws are draconian and excessively discriminatory against men – that there are good chances that you will be treated as a criminal and relegated to the role of visitor (slash) ATM.”

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