Tel Aviv Family Court Keeps Father Paying NIS 10,000 Monthly Child Support After Children Move In With Him

The Tel Aviv Family Court has rejected a father of three’s bid to cancel the NIS 10,000 a month he pays his former wife, even though the children have since moved to his custody. Judge Inbal Vaknin-Hornstein ruled that the divorce agreement barred any change to the amount, and that the mother’s later deterioration was not an unforeseen change in circumstances.

The couple had been married for about 10 years. Their divorce deal required the father to pay NIS 10,000 a month in child support, and stated that neither side could sue to increase or reduce those sums “for any reason whatsoever,” including major changes in income or assets. The agreement also described the payments as part of the overall property settlement between the parties.

The father said the children arrived at his home with suitcases in May 2023 after their mother’s mental condition worsened. He said he tried to understand what was happening and was stunned when she told him she could no longer care for the children and that the responsibility would pass to him. In his lawsuit, he claimed the background was the mother’s drug use. The mother responded that the divorce agreement was a delicate balance of all the financial arrangements, including her waiver of assets worth millions of shekels, so its terms should not be disturbed. She also argued that her decline had been foreseeable when the deal was signed.

In cross-examination, the father admitted he knew when he signed the agreement that his ex-wife was mentally vulnerable. On that basis, the judge found there had been no unexpected material change justifying intervention in the support obligation. She also said the monthly payment could not be viewed separately from the rest of the agreement, which contained other property concessions by the mother in the father’s favor. The father must therefore keep paying the support, and he was ordered to pay NIS 30,000 in legal costs to his ex-wife.