A Hebrew commentary argues that parental alienation is one of family law’s most damaging problems because delay lets a child be cut off from a parent over time. It says that two recent system-wide initiatives were designed to confront that problem quickly, one civil and one religious: the Israeli Supreme Court’s former President Esther Hayut’s Procedure 2-20, and a new directive by Rabbi David Yosef, President of the Great Rabbinical Court and Sephardi Chief Rabbi.
According to the article, Procedure 2-20, which took effect in 2020, was a major procedural breakthrough in family courts. It requires urgent or temporary requests to protect a child’s relationship or safety to be heard with both sides present within 14 days at the latest, and it created reporting and oversight mechanisms so critical petitions would not sit for months. The piece says this redefined parental alienation as an emergency.
The new rabbinical court procedure is described as even more forceful. It requires an in-person hearing within seven days, halves the timetable set in the civil system, and allows a judge to decide based on written filings within 72 hours if that is the best immediate response. The article also says it instructs judges to consider penalties immediately for violations, including daily fines, reducing or canceling child support, restricting bank accounts, credit cards and driving licenses, and in extreme cases transferring the child temporarily to a third party or a protected center.
It further says the rabbinical court plan tries to bypass delays caused by public welfare reports and state-run therapy by sending families directly to approved private experts, with the alienating parent paying the full cost. The article concludes that both procedures serve the child’s best interests, but says the rabbinical court’s plan adds real deterrent power and should be welcomed rather than criticized for political reasons.
