Israel – Men who refuse to give a bill of divorce to their wives can be sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to a proposal by MK Michal Rosin (Meretz) approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation Sunday.
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The legislation doubles the current maximum sentence for a man who refuses to give his wife a “get,” or bill of divorce. According to halacha, only a man can give a bill of divorce.
“Unfortunately, the State of Israel still doesn’t have civil marriage and divorce, so until then, we need to help the thousands of women who are trapped in their marriages and cannot move on with their lives,” Rosin said.
The Meretz MK expressed hope that her proposal will significantly reduce the number of agunot or “chained women,” whose husbands refuse to give them a bill of divorce, which she called “a phenomenon of violent extortion.”
According to Mavoi Satum, an NGO working to help agunot, one of every five divorced women faces extortion and refusal to grant a bill of divorce. Each year, 3,000 “chained women” face the rabbinical courts.
Rosin’s bill has support from opposition and coalition MKs, including several Orthodox lawmakers from the Bayit Yehudi
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
In related, though wholly made-up and not-happening-in-a-thousand-years, news, a companion bill imposing barely any penalties on women who are awarded sole custody of the children, and find any number of reasons to avoid letting their separated spouses see their children and who poison their childrens’ minds against their fathers, is being similarly considered both in Israel and America.
Poisoning kid’s minds against a parent goes both ways. I know a woman whose ex-husband brainwashed a son to not want to see his mother.
As there are only about 1000 outstanding divorce cases in the rabbanut system, there are obviously not 3000 agunot. The number is actually about 100. And there are also about 100 men whose wives will not accept a get from them.
Yes, there are women who are unreasonable in divorce matters as well as men. However, don’t all you scholars understand the difference between the two situations? A man whose wife refuses to accept the get has the option of a civil wedding, with any children being fully accepted as Jews. A woman, however, cannot marry again because her future children would be mamzerim. I read a lot of kvetching on this site about assimilation, OTD Jews, people unable to find a shidduch, yet we prevent some frum women from remarrying within halachah. Why, with thousands of men spending their lives learning, can’t we find a solution to this problem?