In first, Israeli rabbinical court allows publication of female get-refuser’s details. ‘I did nothing wrong,’ woman claims.
The regional rabbinical court in Rehovot in an unprecedented decision permitted the publication of a female get-refuser’s personal details, Kikar Hashabbat reported.
Despite the similar numbers of male and female get-refusers, until now only the details of male get-refusers had been made public, while female get-refusers’ privacy remained protected.
Kobi Nachshoni, who revealed the details to Ynet, said that the judges decided to publish the name and photo of Tal Gil, 26, of Rehovot, so that social pressure might convince her to accept the writ of divorce and free her chained husband from the marriage.
Tal was married to her husband for just three days, and since then has refused to accept the court’s ruling that she must agree to accept the writ of divorce.
Tal’s husband told Ynet: “We tried to do everything to end this difficult saga quickly, and with as little damage to either side as possible, but the injustice, the anguish, and the damage done to me because of her refusal [to divorce] did not leave any options.”
“The State of Israel gives get-refusers the power of a country’s president to grant a person his freedom. It’s not reasonable and it’s not proportional.”
Tal responded: “I am not against receiving the get, but as I told the rabbinical court, according to Maimonides’ Torah law, which is accepted in my family, we need to complete all the other divorce proceedings before I receive the get (writ of divorce). As for the shaming, I did nothing wrong and I have nothing to be ashamed of. The embarrassment belongs to the rabbinical court, in how it handled things. Throughout the process they harmed my rights and my honor while clearly discriminating against me for being a woman and not a man. Were it not for their horrible management, this case would have been over a long time ago.”
At the same time, the rabbinical court in Tel Aviv allowed the publication of the details of Haim Hoffman, a get-refuser from the US, in order to pressure him into granting his wife a religious divorce.
(Arutz 7).