Conference quark::human_relations

17.0. "Human Relationships in the News" by DSSDEV::RUST () Thu Feb 11 1993 19:04

    I don't know if this should be a topic about civil rights violations,
    or "how far would you go to defend your faith," or "how far would you
    go to prove a point," or... well, something else, but the following
    caught my attention (and boggled my mind):
    
    JERUSALEM (AP) - Seven rabbis promised freedom, a fancy apartment and
    religious blessings and sang melancholy Yemeni songs.
    
    All to no avail.
    
    Yahiya Avraham, 80 - who already has spent 30 years in jail for
    refusing his wife a divorce - is standing firm, an Israeli newspaper
    reported Tuesday.
    
    "Can't do it, can't do it, go away," the daily Yedioth quoted Avraham
    as telling the rabbis who pleaded with him on Monday.
    
    According to Jewish law, both parties must agree to a divorce. The law
    provides for imprisonment as a last-resort method of pressure. Yedioth
    said Avraham's 30 years in jail is a record for divorce recalcitrance.
    
    Shula Meiri, a prison service spokeswoman, confirmed today that Avraham
    has been jailed for 30 years. She said that because of his age he was
    kept since 1991 in the hospital of Ayalon Prison in Tel Aviv.
    
    Ora Avraham, 64, first applied for divorce after 12 years of marriage.
    
    The Avrahams were married in Yemen when she was 12 and he was 28. [Oh,
    those February/August marriages never do work out, do they? -b] Mrs.
    Avraham told Yedioth she bore her husband two daughters but he berated
    and abused her for not bearing sons.
    
    ***
    
    I dunno. Maybe the prison food is really good? 
    
    -b