Wave of Arrests of Father's Rights Activists. A Knesset member who sides with the fathers' movement says a "Militant Feminist Crackdown" is under way.

blueyb · 2012-09-01T04:35:08+00:00

This absolutely sucks for those involved. Absolutely. Horrible.

But, the silver lining. This is how progress happens. They don't arrest activists and supporters of a social movement until they get scared. It happened to all successful rights movements.

This doesn't lessen the pain and harm done to those who sit in jail or are "questioned" - but as a movement, I can't help but see this as progress. You do not arrest people you can simply laugh at or dismiss.

theozoph · 2012-09-01T10:27:56+00:00

"Then they fight you."

It has started, gentlemen.

SSJAmes · 2012-09-01T07:51:02+00:00

As a father, this makes me want to cry. I would probably sound "threatening" to if I only got to see my daughter for 2 hours every 2 weeks.

DavidNatan · 2012-09-01T05:09:47+00:00

[permanently deleted]

oneiorosgrip · 2012-09-02T13:16:24+00:00

One activist father, Guy Shamir, has been held in jail for 21 days. He was arrested when Haifa Family Court Judge Esperanza Alon's clerk claimed that he used a threatening phrase in a telephone conversation with her. Shamir says he told the clerk: "The judge should mind her own children and I will mind mine." The clerk claimed that he told the judge to "mind her children" in a threatening way.

In Isreal, fathers may be placed under arrest for a woman's reaction to their words, even if those words do not contain an actual threat.

From the included video:

Inquiry of Otniel Schneller
Item number 7.5 - Supervised Visitation Centers

Honorable Minister, concerning parents as a group, not all of them are in their children's homes. Some of them are divorced within this population. 1,725 children meet with one of their parents in supervised visitation centers once every two weeks for 2 hours, and under the supervision of a social worker.

Supervised visitation, onlly once every two weeks, for only 2 hours - this is harsh even by the standard to which abusive or neglectful parents are held in western nations. Is this the standard for all estranged parents in Israel? O.o

This rate is 6 times higher than anywhere else in the world. In other words, anywhere else in the world would be less than 300 parents like this. Once every 2 weeks for 2 hours, under supervision. I would like to ask the Minister - Isn't that excessive use fo these centers for visitation rights? Is this not abuse of a minor and his father? Can we be any more intensive about the use of supervised visitation centers?
And will the minister make an effort to reduce the usage of supervised visitation centers and come into line with other developed nations of the world?

The reply: A canned answer stressing that the centers are temporary, deferring to social workers, stating that without them, some parents might not even see their children, and offering the centers as a solution. He even describes the difficulty of the use of these centers for estranged parents, mentions other programs, and stresses that the centers are not the preferred option.

Schneller's rebuttal asks striking and on-point question - "In reality, does Israeli society endanger its children 6 times more than anywhere else in the world? Can it truly be that we are a citizenship that is so violent, that we are 6 times more violent than the rest of the world?" This is followed by the suggestion that the real question is one of budget. (Either this means he's saying it's cheaper to shuffle kids off to sparse and remotely - from the estranged parent - located centers, or that there is a budget for these centers, and those benefiting from that money want to keep it that way.)

He doesn't get a satisfactory answer to this question.

This story highlights an issue which I think is an underlying problem from which many father's and other men's rights issues stem. I suspect that to an extent, the issues suffered in Israel by estranged/divorced fathers are a higher, more dramatic parallel to those of fathers in the rest of the western world. Women in divorce, in court, in the judiciary and legal field, are more likely to (as the clerk in this story) falsely interpret nonthreatening, merely assertive behavior as being aggressive and threatening. That being the case, nonviolent but vocal and assertive men would get labeled as violent and assigned remedial or rehabilitative measures such as supervised visitation, anger management classes and other forms of therapy, and frivolous civil protection orders against them on behalf of their exes.

NWOslave · 2012-09-01T23:27:51+00:00

The chickens have come home to roost. Ain't that a shame.

Lucaribro · 2012-09-01T09:11:38+00:00

Mmm. If this is true, I think its time to start breaking out the dox on a large scale.

Sending people to jail over a difference of ideology requires something more forceful than words. Not violence, but a good scare should suffice.

Title	Wave of Arrests of Father's Rights Activists. A Knesset member who sides with the fathers' movement says a "Militant Feminist Crackdown" is under way.
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	110
Comments	21
Date	September 1, 2012 3:54 AM UTC (13 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/z66om/wave_of_arrests_of_fathers_rights_activists_a/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/wave-of-arrests-of-fathers-rights-activists-a.1014521 https://theredarchive.com/post/1014521

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