Sole survivor of Italy cable car crash Eitan Biran: Saved or abducted?

• Published date: 26 September 2021
• Author: SUSAN HATTIS ROLEF
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Eitan's parents, two-year-old brother, and his mother's grandfather and wife, were all killed in a cable-car accident in the Italian Alps on May 23. Eitan himself – the only survivor of the tragic accident in which 14 were killed – was severely injured and spent several months in an Italian hospital in Turin, where his paternal aunt, Dr. Aya Biran-Nirko sat by his side. Some of Eitan's maternal relatives from Israel also visited him in the hospital.

When Eitan left the hospital, he moved in with Aya – who was officially recognized in Italy as his custodian – her husband and their two daughters, and in the beginning of September started to attend a Catholic school in Pavia that Aya's daughters attend. Before the accident, Eitan's parents also lived in Pavia, while his father Amit studied medicine. Eitan had in fact lived in Italy from the age of one month, even though he frequently visited his relatives in Israel with his parents.

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Several days after Rosh Hashanah, Eitan's maternal grandfather – Shmuel Peleg – on a visit to Pavia from Israel, took Eitan out for the day and was supposed to return him to Aya toward evening. However, he never returned, and Eitan was next reported to have arrived in Israel with his grandfather, in a private plane that took off from a small airfield in Switzerland, to which Peleg had managed to smuggle Eitan with his Israeli passport (he couldn't have taken him out of Italy with his Italian passport).

As soon as Aya discovered what had happened she complained of the kidnap, both to the Italian and Israeli authorities. Now a trial has opened in the family court in Tel Aviv, on the issue of the abduction. The court is not meant to deal with the issue of the custody over Eitan (in Israel Eitan's maternal aunt – Gali Peleg-Peri – is seeking to adopt him), but with the question of whether he was illegally abducted, and whether or not he should be returned immediately to Italy.

On the face of it, according to international law, there seems no doubt that Eitan was abducted by his maternal grandfather. However, members of the Peleg family in Israel question whether the custody obtained by Aya from the Italian authorities is legal and permanent, claiming that they were told that it was only temporary. They also suggest that Aya had not acted in good faith, and have even implied that her interest...