Military Family Serving in Israel: Has the Hague Convention been successfully invoked to return children to Israel, where the parents are in the military forces, the family moves from one foreign posting to another and the marriage breaks down during the Israeli posting?

Yes - for example, in the Watkins case heard in Germany in 2001, both parents were US forces personnel, who had moved from a German to an Israeli posting with their mutual child. Shortly after moving to Israel, the mother went back to Germany with the child, with the father's consent, for a brief reserve duty posting, but, while abroad, she informed her husband that she wanted to separate and divorce, and not return to Israel, as planned, and agreed, after her reserve duty ended, for the remainder of her husband's 3-year posting. In accordance with US army rules, permission is required to return to the US before the end of duty, so the mother petitioned to the German court to return to the US early, instead of Israel. The father brought Hague Convention proceedings and the child was ordered back to Israel. The German Court hearing the Hague application rejected the mother's argument that because the marriage broke down the agreement about her returning to Israel with the child after her reserve duty was obsolete. It called her behaviour "absolutely one-sided". She was able to avail herself of the early return programme to the States, and to file for divorce, but the child must be returned to Israel, it said.