""The phenomenon of filing false police complaints is being exploited today as a systematic use for divorce struggles," wrote the members of the Netanya Rabbinical Court in the conclusions of an extensive and profound halachic ruling, which serves as a warning sign for spouses and lawyers.
The story: A couple from Netanya, parents of three children, got into a troubled relationship and have been separated for three years, but meet intermittently.
The husband filed for divorce, and since then his wife has filed a series of false complaints with the police, alleging that the husband locked her in the study and used violence against her. The husband was arrested and removed from his home.
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Later, the woman repeatedly filed complaints with the police, and the husband was removed from his home and children, and even from his business, thus depriving him of his livelihood.
Nevertheless, when the husband applied for divorce to the rabbinical court, the wife refused and demanded peace of mind.
Judges Rabbi Shlomo Shapira, Rabbi Avraham Maysles and Herr Raphael Ben Shimon noted in the ruling: "Filing such a complaint at the beginning of a process supposedly grants superiority at the beginning of the struggle. At first, it is moral superiority and later it may lead to practical results in favor of the complaining party.".
At the same time, the judges wrote: "There is no need to dwell on how humiliating it is to remove one of the spouses from their home while being escorted by police officers and in public in front of the neighbors, when they are put in a police car. There is no need to exaggerate the questionable experience of being in a detention cell, especially for a normal person. At the end of the interrogation, the person who was arrested is sent away for a few days – and all this without any wrongdoing, for tactical purposes.".
After the members of the Rabbinical Court examined the essence of the facts, they concluded that there are several halachic reasons for requiring the woman to obtain a divorce, each of which has been analyzed by the dayanim in rulings throughout halachic history.
At the same time, in the same ruling, the Rabbinical Court also rejects tactical maneuvers by spouses who seek "home peace" when in reality they are not interested in it.
The couple eventually divorced, with the court warning the public to avoid filing false police complaints.
