While sentenced in 2013, he is speaking out now to warn others of what he calls a “literally life-threatening experience.”
By World Israel News staff
Australian citizen Noam Huppert has been barred from leaving the country until the year 9999, or until he pays NIS 7.5 million in child support payments, he recently told Australian news outlet News.com.au.
Huppert was barred in 2013 during a visit to his two children after his former spouse brought her case into Israeli family court, which issued a stay-of-exit order against him due to his debt of 5000 Israeli shekels per month, according to News.com.au. The money includes all payments until both children turn 18.
He has since been unable to leave for work or even vacation.
Huppert told the Australian news agency that he one of the many men to be “persecuted by the Israeli justice system only because they were married to Israeli women,” and that he is speaking out in order to help others who may “suffer this literally life-threatening experience”.
While Australia’s relevant travel department website makes no mention of the issue, the U.S. State Department does in fact notify its citizens.
The department states in a section called “court jurisdiction,” that civil and religious courts in Israeli “actively exercise their authority to bar certain individuals from leaving the country until debts or other legal claims against them are resolved”.
The jurisdiction includes “all citizens and residents of Israel in cases of marriage, divorce, child custody, and child support.”
“U.S. citizens, including those without Israeli citizenship, should be aware that they may be subject to involuntary and prolonged stays (and even imprisonment) in Israel if a case is filed against them in a religious court.”
Moreover, it should be noted that the US Embassy “is unable to cancel the debt of a U.S. citizen or guarantee their departure from Israel when they face a bar from leaving the country.”