The Sceptic Blog

In the last few months I have heard some appalling histories of get refusal. A recurring theme is of women being told by the Beth Din that there are “minor matters outstanding”, generally the payment of money or the relinquishment of a financial claim, before the get can be arranged.

Unless an extraordinary number of women are telling remarkably consistent lies, a number of Botei Din appear to regard this as part of diplomatic negotiation.

The criminal law of the United Kingdom has a different word for it: blackmail.

Demanding money (whether under the pretence of a debt or not) with the threat of withholding a get unless it is paid is a simple case of blackmail. And a dayan or Beth Din registrar who facilitates a demand of this kind may be committing the inchoate offence of encouraging or assisting an offence believing it will be committed, contrary to section 45 of the Serious Crime Act 2007.

Another relevant offence, section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 (controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship), has recently been extended to former relationships by section 68 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. From the way in which the Federation Beth Din and the London Beth Din have reacted to the responses to their original statements about this development, it seems that they may have begun to realise that there are potential personal criminal consequences of continuing to connive at or collaborate in the use of the get as a tool of mental cruelty and extortion.

But they still assert that halachah ties their hands. It does not. They need to understand that prosecution for criminal blackmail or for coercive behaviour is not something a woman “does” to coerce her husband into giving the get: it is simply a consequence of his refusal to do the right thing. It is the State that prosecutes, not the victim. It is of course true that halachic coercion can only be applied by halachic authorities; but that does not permit those authorities to shelter people from the criminal consequences of their actions.

And applying halachah so as to deter a victim of crime from reporting an offence for the State to prosecute is likely to amount to an additional criminal offence of perverting the course of justice.

The community must seize the moment and make clear to dayonim and rabbis that this is not going to go away, and that they are likely to find themselves imprisoned if they continue to facilitate blackmail and coercion as part of their “negotiating strategy” over divorces. If we fail to do this, we as a community will remain complicit in the abuse that women, and some men, are suffering in this respect every single day.