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It’s time for Israel to show moral leadership and extradite Malka Leifer

Sharon Berger
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Published: 17 February 2019

Last updated: 4 March 2024

ISRAEL AND AUSTRALIA signed an extradition treaty in 1975. In all that time there have been no extraditions from Israel to Australia, until the case of Melbourne school principal Malka Leifer. Since 2014 the Australian government has requested extradition of the former Adass Israel principal, who faces 74 cases of child sex abuse.

Her legal team has claimed she is mentally unfit to face trial and each time a court date is set, a plethora of doctors and psychiatrists argue about her suitability for extradition. This uneasy tension was broken last week by media reports alleging that the Israeli Deputy Health Minister, Yaakov Litzman, threatened state psychiatrists with dismissal if their medical reports were not in Leifer’s favour.

The revelations about Litzman’s ugly meddling should spur the Israeli government to expedite the legal proceedings and push for her extradition, five years later. The process until now, with more than 45 court hearings, has left Leifer’s victims with no recourse to justice or closure. In the latest hearing, overnight, a judge refused yet another application for bail and said Leifer should undergo a fresh psychiatric test.

"The ongoing Leifer saga has been a farce. It has raised significant questions about Israel's legal system. It has been frustrating and disappointing, to say the least. And for her courageous survivors, the detrimental impact from this drawn out process has been immense,” Manny Waks, CEO of Kol v’Oz, a non-profit aimed at preventing child sexual abuse in the global Jewish community, told Plus 61J prior to the news last week of Litzman’s police probe.

Leifer fled to Israel in 2008, with the assistance of the Adass board, when molestation accusations surfaced against her in Australia. Since then further sexual abuse allegations have been raised against her.

Despite government pressure, including lobbying by former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull, the Israeli court system does not seem to be in a rush to resolve the case anytime soon.  This is notwithstanding the growing international media attention around the case due to the #bringleiferback campaign.
 “We have never heard any accusations that Israel harboured sex offenders and in all honesty, I take exception to your even mentioning it” - Israeli embassy spokesperson 

A leading Australian international treaties expert told Plus 61J, “extradition is ultimately a political process rather than a legal one” and suggested that further off-the-record diplomatic requests were the most likely path to yield results.

When I approached the Israeli embassy for information about the history of the extradition treaty, the spokesperson said the embassy would not make any comment because the Leifer case is sub-judice. She added: “We have never heard any accusations that Israel harboured sex offenders and in all honesty, I take exception to your even mentioning it.”

Given all that has happened, and that Leifer is not the first alleged Jewish sex offender to flee to Israel, this was a startling remark, and no doubt would cause distress to the people Leifer abused, chiefly among them Dassi Erlich and her sisters, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper.

“We are constantly tested with our hope for the #bringleiferback extradition but we are cautiously optimistic as this is only thing that keeps us going in our search for justice. It has been an elongated process with so many delays, each of them causing a multitude of emotions and triggers,”  Erlich told The Jewish Independent.

“We hope that Israel will honour the extradition treaty with Australia and set a precedent with eventually extraditing Malka Leifer,” she added.

Leifer is not the first alleged Jewish sex offender to flee to Israel to escape trial. In 2016 Waks lobbied the Israeli Knesset’s Committee for the Rights of the Child about how convicted and alleged Jewish sex offenders around the world come to Israel as a safe haven to avoid jail and start a new life where people are unfamiliar with the allegations against them.

"In recent years, we have seen greater awareness and understanding regarding alleged and convicted sex offenders using Israel as a safe haven to evade justice and/or to start a new life where no one is aware of their criminal past (or the allegations against them). We have seen many cases where the Law of Return is being used by these criminals," said Waks.

He adds, optimistically, that there have however been arrests and progress in a number of cases, “I am aware of cases where Israel extradited criminals overseas - in the context of child sexual abuse, there's Todros Grynhaus to the UK, in the past two years or so there was a rabbi/teacher sent back to Amsterdam and there's a current case that just broke this week.

“The French case is similar to Leifer, except that he seemed to have escaped himself (rather than an institution spiriting him off).”

In addition, there appear to have been other recent extraditions to the UK  and the US for sexual abuse cases.

All this shows that it is possible for the right outcome in this case, even at this current nadir in proceedings. We can only hope that the Israeli government shows enough moral courage and leadership to do the right thing and extradite Leifer.

READ MORE
Former school principal Malka Leifer denied bail by Israeli judge (Guardian)
On Monday, Leifer’s defence team argued their client’s mental state in detention had deteriorated to the point that her life was in danger. The judge denied the appeal and said Leifer should undergo a fresh psychiatric test

Israel's deputy health minister accused of threatening govt psychiatrists in sex abuse case (Haaretz)
New details emerge in case involving Australian ultra-Orthodox principal accused of sexual assault on minors, reveals Litzman's attempts to have Malka Leifer declared unfit for trial and block her extradition

Alleged sex abuser’s former PR guru now working for Benny Gantz (Times of Israel)
Israel Resilience party spokeswoman points out Ronen Tzur no longer works on Malka Leifer’s behalf; woman’s accusers ‘shocked’ to learn of prominent new position

Australian Jewish group protests over handling of Malka Leifer case (Times of Israel)
Zionist Federation of Australia expresses frustration over allegations that Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman attempted to block extradition of alleged sexual predator

Photo: From left, Dassi Erlich, Malka Leifer, Yaakov Litzman

About the author

Sharon Berger

Sharon Berger is the Events & Partnerships Manager at TJI. Sharon is a former journalist for The Jerusalem Post, Reuters, the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Australian Jewish News.

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