Hearing begins on Eitan Biran custody battle in Tel Aviv

• Author: YONAH JEREMY BOB
• Published date: 23 September 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Six-year-old Eitan is the sole survivor of a cable car crash in Northern Italy in May in which 14 people were killed including Eitan's father, Amit Biran; his mother, Tal Peleg; his one-year-old brother, Tom; and his great-grandparents, Barbara Cohen Konisky and Itshak Cohen.

The closed-door hearing on Thursday was procedural, to set the schedule for the trial and determine the custody arrangements during this interim period.

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Italian authorities had previously assigned Eitan's custody to his aunt, Aya, who is Amit's sister and a doctor who lives with her family, including two daughters around Eitan's age, in the suburbs of Pavia in northern Italy.

Eitan's family had moved to Pavia five years ago where Amit was studying medicine.

The six-year-old was illegally taken to Israel by his grandfather, Shmuel Peleg, earlier this month and the boy's relatives on his father's side are fighting to return him to Italy.

Immediately after she learned that the child was in Israel, Aya petitioned an Italian court which opened an investigation against Peleg for suspected kidnapping.

Peleg's lawyers in Italy have acknowledged that he had taken the boy to Israel saying he had "acted on impulse," as he was worried about his grandson's health after he was excluded from legal proceedings related to the boy's custody.

Israeli government officials have been quoted as leaning toward recommending that the issue of permanent custody arrangements be decided in Italy.

This would be because there is precedent for empowering the country where the complex situation began, to determine the issue as the custody dispute and the abduction all began in Italy.

On the other hand, in typical cases under The Hague Convention for determining the custody of minors, the battle is usually between a...