Retired Israeli Judge Spreads Controversy in Australia

Retired Israeli Judge Spreads Controversy in Australia

by Sol Havivi

Tel Aviv, ISRAEL – 18 March 2013.  Public outcry in Israel led to Philip Marcus’ early retirement last year.  Marcus’ controversial views came to light when he denied custody to a gay father because he claimed his court had no way of knowing whether this homosexual father was a pedophile.  That father had Marcus’ ruling overturned on appeal.  The backlash over this case forced then-Judge Marcus into early retirement.

   Philip Marcus’ troubles did not end there.  A group of Israeli parents brought his rulings to a committee hearing at the United Nations and successfully proved the family court system which Marcus helped establish in Israel violates international human rights laws.  A lawsuit pending in Manhattan, NY cites Philip Marcus’ rulings to show systematic torture of divorced fathers in Israel.

   The 6^th World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights is changing Philip Marcus’ luck in Sydney, Australia today.  At 13:30 local time today he will present his paper on “Children’s Rights”.  This presentation also gives him the opportunity to share views from his thesis published in 2007; which argues taking away rights from citizens in court and replacing those rights with obligations.  The World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights gathers government officials, family law practitioners, jurists and other decision-makers from all over the world to influence changes in family laws internationally.

   “This is a very scary development,” says Yehudah Mizrachi, a spokesman of the Coalition for Children and the Family in Israel.  “Inviting Philip Marcus from Israel to help formulate laws governing children’s rights is like inviting Bashar al-Assad from Syria to help formulate international human rights laws.  It makes no sense.”

   Documents from the Coalition for Children and the Family assert that, as judge, Philip Marcus was “drunk on his own power”.  These documents include data showing the family court system he created performed poorly on children’s rights compared to other countries in the OECD.  One specific example was a Knesset hearing in which former Knesset Member Otniel Schneller pointed out that the supervised visitation rate in Israel is six times higher than anywhere else in the world.  “Are we really such a violent society that we endanger our children six times more than anywhere else in the developed world?” KM Schneller asks.

   The lawsuit pending in New York also references this hearing and points out that this system drains nearly $10 billion from the state budget plus over $1 billion in donations.  The complaint compares this budget to New York’s whose population is three times larger than Israel; yet operates successfully on 16% of this budget.  One of the Plaintiffs in this lawsuit recounts his experience in the court documents, “[Philip Marcus] told me in open court he did not care if I lived or died.”  The organizing committee of the World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights has not responded to requests for an interview explaining their reason for selecting Philip Marcus to present his paper on children’s rights. 

In Israel....

Israeli Torture Witness Jailed on Trumped-Up Charges

Israeli Torture Witness Jailed on Trumped-Up Charges

by I.P. Dailey, UnPromisedLand channel

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2919564/posts

STOUGHTON, WI – August 16, 2012. An Israeli magistrate court in Haifa extended the detention of Guy Shamir who has been held without bail since last Friday. The complaint against him alleges that he threatened the children of Esperanza Alon, a family court judge in Haifa. Each day this

week the police extended his detention for an additional 24 hours. Concurrently the state prosecutor’s office announced its intent to indict. Now the prosecution is asking to keep Shamir in jail without bail until the end of the trial.

According to the complaint, the incident arose during a telephone conversation between Alon’s secretary and Shamir on August 6^th – four days before Shamir’s arrest. The indictment states that Alon’s secretary called Shamir directly instead of contacting his attorney to make sure that Shamir would clearly receive the judge's ruling against him on the custody of his children. Shamir allegedly said in response, "I don’t care about the judge’s ruling. Tell her to mind her own children . . . ." At that point the secretary hung up the phone before Shamir could finish his response.

Attorney Raz Misgav, who was appointed yesterday to represent Shamir, points out that the complaint which the police filed against Shamir is only made by the judge’s secretary. Alon herself did not make a complaint against him at all. Furthermore, the 4-day wait to arrest Shamir is not consistent with seriousness of the allegation - as if the charges were in fact trumped-up.

"I tell you, I saw a lot of wacky claims in my life,” said Misgav. “This claim is the most surreal thing that I have seen so far. He never threatened anyone. The call was cut short by the secretary. Moreover, I certainly will recommend my client to submit a counterclaim against the police and state prosecutor with the Appellate Court. They arrested him, imprison him without bail and prosecute him over this? It is something completely unrealistic which I have never seen in my career.”

"It is important to note that my client signed affidavits as a witness for lawsuits pending in the United States. These lawsuits allege the Israeli judicial system hunts down divorced fathers exactly as they are doing to my client right now."

On July 12^th police raided the home of David Weisskopf, a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits. They confiscated his documents related to his lawsuit against Israeli officials alleging he and other divorced fathers are torture victims. The police confiscated several documents including witness affidavits and reference to another lawsuit pending in New Jersey against the same Israeli officials. Since then, they have been using those confiscated documents to harass plaintiffs and witnesses in these lawsuits. According to an injunction requested today in the New Jersey lawsuit, the Israeli officials are even trying to bully a rabbi into allowing that plaintiff’s body to be desecrated “after his death”. Now Guy Shamir, a divorced father of two, is the latest victimized विटनेस.

“They are using our children as pawns to attack us,” says Weisskopf. “In Shamir’s case they are retaliating by trying to sever all contact between him and his children. I know Guy; he is one of the most loving & gentle fathers I have ever met. Their extreme tactics will only galvanize us in our fight for our children’s basic human rights.”

Social Justice activists have announced they will continue protesting against the arrest of Guy Shamir. They hope that by raising public awareness the government will take notice and clean up corruption that currently permeates the Israeli judicial and welfare systems.

משגב: "זו התביעה ההזויה ביותר שראיתי עד כה"

ע''י אליק מאור

גיא שמיר, פעיל מחאה, נעצר ומואשם על ידי פרקליטות חיפה כי איים על שופטת בית המשפט לענייני משפחה. השופטת לא התלוננה. מזכירתה כן. הבוקר יובא שמיר לדיון בדרישת הפרקליטות לעוצרו עד תום הליכים. פרקליטו ייעץ היום למרשו להגיש מייד בג"ץ נגד משטרת ישראל והפרקליטות על מעצר ותביעת שווא.

[מאמר שלם בעברית נמצא כאן: http://megafon-news.co.il/asys/archives/73306]

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Israeli Fathers Allege Torture in Lawsuits

HOUSTON, TX - April 26, 2012.  A federal court in Houston this week held its first hearing on a $20 million lawsuit alleging systematic torture upon divorced fathers in the Israeli judicial and welfare systems.  This is one of four lawsuits which Israeli fathers have filed in the United States and Europe.  Legal consultants are also helping the Israeli fathers prepare to file lawsuits in Canada.  David Weisskopf, the plaintiff in the Houston case, describes the Israeli environment as an ‘open season’ on divorced fathers.

   “Men are literally dying,” says Weisskopf.  He points out how 45 froze to death on the “tropical” streets in Israel last winter and that the suicide rate among divorced fathers is more than 250 times higher than the overall Israeli population.  “These statistics are by far the world’s worst and are thanks to all the lobbying, training and ongoing consultation from the defendants.”

   In an unprecedented move, the Houston court is allowing Weisskopf to add parties to his lawsuit regardless of their citizenship.  This opens the door for Israeli fathers to join the American lawsuit as well as immigrant fathers who have endured torture in the Israeli judiciary or welfare system.  The diversity of plaintiffs will show how widespread and systematic the torture has become in the Israeli judicial and welfare systems.

   Nearly two dozen Israeli bureaucrats and their donors have been named as defendants between the four lawsuits – including Israel’s minister of welfare, minister of justice and even a Supreme Court judge.  However, the plaintiffs may have a right to add more defendants which then implicates more Israeli bureaucrats and their American donors.

   Though all the current defendants have been summoned in the American lawsuits, some of them have not yet filed their appearances.  Israeli defendants who fail to appear in American courts may have default judgments entered against them.  Plaintiffs may then petition Israeli courts to enforce default foreign judgments.

   Legal consultants assisting these fathers in Israel plan to use the same tactics against these Israeli bureaucrats to enforce judgments which the Israeli bureaucrats commonly use to harass divorced fathers in Israel - who cannot declare bankruptcy when these bureaucrats drive them into destitution.  These tactics include, stop-orders from leaving the country, revoking driver’s licenses, freezing assets including bank accounts, arrests at 2am and imprisonment in debtor’s prison, garnishing all wages except $375 per month, calling in employers to testify in court, and seeking similar court orders against family members.

   Two of the bureaucrats involved in the lawsuits forced Weisskopf to endure an interrogation at their office within hours of his emergency surgery.  The interrogation lasted an hour though he was suffering from a fractured sinus and bone cyst at the time.  Weisskopf recorded the meeting audibly, superimposed visual animation and posted a three-part satire on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=XBX4CR9aniA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZsZY343KvM&feature=fvwrel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=kS_54I5dG4s

   To date the three-part satire has received over 100,000 views ranking them 40^th place as the most-viewed Israeli videos on YouTube.  Weisskopf’s inbox has been flooded with messages from police and social workers worldwide denouncing the brutal treatment he endured at the hands of Israeli bureaucrats.  Meanwhile Israeli authorities have stonewalled efforts to investigate wrong-doing by their bureaucrats.

  The international contact for these lawsuits is the Coalition for Children and the Family in Israel (www.ccfisrael.org).  Jury trial on the first lawsuit has been set for May-June 2013.