The application related to a child, who was 2 1/2 years old at the time of the alleged wrongful removal and who was born and raised in Israel. During the summer of 2005, the mother took the child to the U.S. informing the father they would return on 2 September 2005.
Two days before this date the mother informed the father that their return had been delayed but requested that the father meet them at the airport in Israel when they did so. However, mother and child did not return. The father later found out that the mother had taken the child to Brazil.
On 31 May 2006 the father filed an urgent ex parte request under Article 15 in the Family Court in Jerusalem for a declaration that the child had been wrongfully removed. The father had equally submitted a request for the child’s return with the Israeli Central Authority, but the child had not yet been located in Brazil.
The Family Court in Jerusalem ruled that the child was habitually resident in Israel and he had been removed from Israel in breach of the father’s custody rights. The mother appealed and claimed that the Family Court had gone beyond its jurisdiction by ruling on the matter, for only the Brazilian Courts had jurisdiction to decide on the applicability of the Hague Convention.
