An Israeli appeals court has said a 6-year-old boy who survived a cable car crash in Italy must be returned to his relatives there within 15 days, upholding an earlier ruling in a bitter custody battle with family members in Israel.
Eitan Biran’s parents and younger sibling were among 14 people killed in May when a cable car slammed into a mountainside in northern Italy. His maternal grandparents in Israel and his paternal relatives in Italy are both seeking custody.
Israeli media reported the latest ruling, which was issued late Thursday, and say the relatives in Israel can appeal to the Supreme Court. Lawyers for the families could not immediately be reached for comment.
This week, an Italian judge issued an international arrest warrant for the boy’s grandfather, who whisked Eitan to Israel on a private jet in September.
Last month, an Israeli court ordered the boy to be returned to his relatives in Italy, where he was living before the crash, saying that was “the place of his normal residence.” It also ordered his grandfather, Shmuel Peleg, who had brought him to Israel against the wishes of his family members in Italy, to pay around $20,000 in expenses and attorney fees.
The grandfather has defended his decision to spirit the boy away, saying it was in the child’s best interest. He drove Eitan from Italy to Switzerland without the other relatives’ knowledge before flying him to Israel. He has not commented on the Italian arrest warrant.
Eitan’s paternal relatives say he was taken without their knowledge and they had filed a legal complaint in Italy seeking his return.
Eitan and his parents were living in Italy at the time of the accident. After his release from a Turin hospital following weeks of treatment, Italian juvenile court officials ruled the child would live with a paternal aunt, Aya Biran, near Pavia, in northern Italy.
In the earlier ruling, the Tel Aviv family court said Eitan’s residence was in Italy, where his family moved when he was only a month old. The judge concluded that his relocation to Israel was unlawful and violated the guardianship rights of his aunt.
The judge also called on the family to reconcile, saying it was in the boy’s interests.
(AP)
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5 Responses
If this were a situation where religious observance was an issue, I might have some sympathies here. However, it seems that this is not the case, and it is merely a story of foolish people doing foolish things, so I’m not sure why this story is followed so closely on YWN. I’m sure that all over the world there are many ridiculous custody battles which spark no interest. At the beginning, it was a story of a Jewish tragedy, but now it’s a story of Jewish retards
i dont anyone ever telling me that israel cares about jews or even about israel. if they are cooperating with the italians to kidnap a jewish child and have him raised as a goy in italy, have the jewish grandfather who was moser nefesh to save him, arrested.
They dont care about jews or israel.
WIPE THEM THE MAP!!
Yosele Shumacher saga revisited
FrumWhere, obviously you are not frum because you don’t care that the boy was put in a Catholic institution.
I imagine all YWN reeaders are pained about this yossom’s situation. However many are making the mistake of thinking that Israel is a Jewish country. It is not. So far as the Israeli courts are concerned, the State has signed International agreements which must be kept. Indeed if Israel refuses to send this boy back, when there is, as there surely will be some time in the future, a case where a Jewish child has been kidnapped and is in a foreign country, that country will say you Israelis only want it all your own way, well so do we. Many Israelis, not frum Israelis, cried bitterly when the UK Courts ordered that life support be removed from Alta Fikxler a”h but they were merely applying UK law. If people don’t want to be judged by foreign standards stay in your own country of birth. If that is no good for you, move elsewhere but only after you have checked carefully their laws.