Rabbinic court conditions divorce on wife agreeing not to file rape charges

A Jerusalem rabbinic court was accused Wednesday of obstruction of justice for preventing a woman from filing charges against her ex-husband for allegedly raping her and violently abusing her and her children.

Mavoi Satum (Dead End), an organization which works on behalf of women whose husbands refuse to give them a Jewish bill of divorce (get), wrote to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit calling on him to investigate three religious judges for pressuring the woman to sign the document in order to receive her get.

Before receiving her bill of divorce in February 2016, the wife had to sign an agreement that she “will not file any police complaint about any past events.” According to the letter, the woman was pressured by the court to sign the agreement, which prevented her from accusing her husband of rape and violence against both her and their children.

The group asked Mandelblit to open a criminal investigation into the judges for perverting the course of justice.

A lawyer for the woman’s ex-husband told the Walla news site his client “categorically” denied the allegations against him.

The rabbinical court said in response it was not presented with evidence to support the accusations of rape and violence and that the women was aware of the implications on her ability to pursue charges when she accepted the bill of divorce.

The court said it felt “it was preferable to approve the agreement without interfering in the matter of a police complaint than to endanger the women.”

It also said it did not intervene “because there are other clauses in the agreement that were important to the woman [about] which there were long and bitter arguments between them, whereas regarding this clause the woman did not express any objection.”

In Orthodox Judaism, a marriage cannot be undone unless the man consents to give a get — the Hebrew word for the bill of divorce. Rabbinical courts — which in Israel function as family courts as part of the judiciary and have executive powers — cannot force a man to give his wife a get but they can impose harsh punishments on men the judges determine are unjustly withholding a get and turning their wives into what is known in Judaism as agunot, or “chained women.”

Orthodox rabbis will not allow a chained woman remarry. Any children born to an agunah out of wedlock will in turn be ineligible for an Orthodox Jewish wedding.

JTA contributed to this report.