Could a mother who abducts a child to Israel succeed in preventing an Israeli court from ordering the child returned abroad because she would be at risk of being arrested for child abduction in her home country?

The chances are slim. As part of an appeal before the Supreme Court of Israel in August 2010 concerning a child abducted from the United States to Israel, it was held that: “..experience shows that aside from exceptional cases such as the abduction of the child using violence or repeated abductions – the chance…of (her) being arrested are not great…we will not accept the claim that the abducting parent will be able to claim that there is an obligation to leave the child in the country to which he was taken because of the fear of arrest in the state where the abduction was carried out. Of course, this is not the viewpoint of caselaw.”