I am the father of an Israeli child who is living in Israel in the custody of my ex-wife. She is brainwashing my son against me, just as she did with his elder sister, who is now an adult, and is totally alienated from me. My 'ex' will barely give me time to see my child in Israel when I can afford to visit, and will not hear of him visiting me abroad. I fear he is being poisoned against me. What are my options?

The first option is to file for access or visitation rights in Israel, and ask for a social worker/welfare officer to be appointed by court to make a report and recommendations on the matter. This will involve an investigation of all the inter-relationships in the family, including the relationship of your eldest child with you and her mother, and how this affects the situation with your son. If the professional appointed considers that you are being denied access and this is causing irreparable harm to your son e.g. that he is suffering from Parental Alienation Syndrome, then he/she can initiate proceedings. He/she can ask the court to declare your son "a minor in need of protection” according to the Youth (Care & Supervision) Law of 1960. This is, however, a highly controversial move since if the court does make such a declaration then it can issue a care or supervision order which will transfer custody of the child to the welfare authorities . They can then decide where the child should live and what treatment he should get. Basically the idea behind this is to put the child in a neutral environment so that he can get the psychological counselling he needs to enable him to rebuild his relationship with the alienated parent.