OWN CORRESPONDENT
The order was granted in time to enable the 12-year-old son to celebrate his barmitzvah in Israel next month. He has gone to Israel with his sister (14).
The couple, who cannot be named to protect the children, were married in 1998. They came to South Africa in 2007 to take up teaching posts in a religious school. Their four children arrived in this country with them.
They were divorced by Jewish law in 2010, the same year the father went back to Israel when his teaching contract ended.
He stated in court papers that he had expected the rest of his family, including his former wife, also to return to live there. The mother, who had obtained permanent residence in South Africa, remained here with the four children.
The father came back to South Africa in 2012. In court papers he said the two older children told him then that they did not want to go on living with their mother, accusing her of not looking after them properly.
The mother denied these allegations.
After the father returned to this country, the two older children spent lengthy periods with him.
The father returned to Israel in 2013, alleging he was forced to leave because his life had been threatened. He did not elaborate on the threats or their source.
In her court papers, the mother said his departure amounted to abandoning the children. She said he had also abandoned them on a previous occasion.
In the meantime, after his second departure for Israel, the two elder children were placed in the care of the Arcadia Jewish Children’s Home, where they remained until their departure for Israel earlier this month.
The court appointed a social worker to take care of the interests of the children. She reported that the father had broken down the relationship between the mother and the two older children, who did not wish to stay with the mother.
Photographs of all the children taken on an outing three years ago showed that “none of the children looked at all unhappy”, the social worker said. The photographs showed “a very happy family unit”.
According to the social worker, these were not children one expected to find in a children’s home.
While the father claimed the two older children had told him they would rather run away than return to their mother, she said the father had become hostile after she had requested him to sign documents to allow her and the children to stay in South Africa.
She alleged that he “poisoned the children against me and told them he would take them to Israel”. She said he painted an unrealistic utopian picture of that country.
She added that the children had forgotten much of their Hebrew and that it was not in their interests to go back to Israel.
Justice Ruth Mokgoatlheng ordered that the two older children be allowed to travel to Israel this month, but added they should be placed in the care of social services until it could be determined whether their father was fit and capable of looking after them.
