I think my elderly mother in Israel is being neglected or abused by her carer. What can I do from abroad?

The signals arrive in pieces from London. Your mother sounds frightened on the phone and the carer answers instead of her. Money is leaving the account in amounts nobody explains. A neighbour mentions bruising and then stops returning calls. Israeli law has a specific machinery for this, it does not require you to prove anything before it starts moving, and the person who sets it in motion does not have to be in the country.

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Detailed Answer

The Protection of Helpless Persons Law 5726-1966 defines a choseh, a helpless person, as a minor under fourteen or anyone who because of disability, intellectual impairment or old age cannot care for their own needs. Under Section 4, where a designated social worker under the law believes that the physical or mental welfare of such a person is being harmed, or is at real risk of serious harm through lack of appropriate care, and the person or their guardian will not agree to what is needed, the social worker may apply to the court for directions. The orders available are substantial: removal of the elderly person from the abusive setting, separation from the abuser, and admission for examination, diagnosis or treatment, all available without the person's consent and all time-limited. That authority belongs exclusively to the designated social worker at the municipal welfare department, which is why the effective first step is not a lawyer's letter but a report to the welfare office of the local authority where your mother lives. Running alongside it, Section 368D of the Penal Code 5737-1977 imposes a criminal duty to report a reasonable suspicion that an offence has been committed against a helpless person by someone responsible for them, and Section 368C makes assault or abuse of a helpless person an aggravated offence. Doctors, nurses, social workers and carers are bound by that reporting duty, so a call to your mother's kupat holim clinic often produces a report faster than the family can.

From abroad the difficulty is not the law, it is being taken seriously and then staying in the loop. Report in writing as well as by telephone, in Hebrew if you can manage it, addressed to the welfare department of the specific municipality, and state plainly that you are the son or daughter living overseas, what you have observed, on what dates, and who else has seen it. Follow the same day with a police report if you suspect theft from the account or physical harm, because the police and the welfare department run separate files and neither opens the other's. Where money is the concern, the Israeli bank will not discuss the account with you without authority, but a designated social worker or the Administrator General can, and a guardianship order, or an enduring power of attorney that the attorney-in-fact has brought into force by declaration to the Administrator General, changes who is entitled to see the statements. Expect to be told that your mother is competent and refuses help, which is common and is exactly the situation Section 4 was written for. If the carer is a foreign worker, the employment agency holding the permit carries its own supervisory duties and a parallel complaint to the Population and Immigration Authority carries weight. Keep a dated log, because a court will ask for one, and where distance is preventing you from acting quickly, consider whether the arrangements set out in the guide to guardianship of a parent in Israel from abroad need to be in place before the next crisis rather than after it.

In Practice: Section 4 of the Protection of Helpless Persons Law 5726-1966 empowers the designated social worker at the municipal welfare department to apply for court orders separating an elderly person from an abuser without their consent, and Section 368D of the Penal Code 5737-1977 makes a report of suspected abuse a criminal duty for any professional who becomes aware of it. An urgent application is heard within days and interim orders are commonly granted for up to 30 days and renewed. A guardianship application brought by a relative abroad, by contrast, runs 3 to 6 months at the Family Court and costs NIS 15,000 to NIS 30,000 in fees, translations and apostilles, which is why the welfare route is the emergency answer and guardianship the structural one.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• Money has already moved. Recovering funds taken from an elderly person's Israeli account is a civil claim with its own evidence, and a freezing application has to be made before the account is emptied rather than after the welfare investigation concludes.
• Siblings in Israel disagree with you about what is happening. A guardianship or protection application that turns into a family contest is decided on evidence, and a relative abroad who has documented nothing is at a serious disadvantage.
• Your mother has signed a new will, a gift or a power of attorney in favour of the carer. Capacity and undue influence have to be challenged with contemporaneous medical evidence, and that evidence becomes harder to obtain with every month that passes.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

An Israeli attorney can lodge the welfare report and the police complaint in the form that gets a file opened, apply for interim protective orders, and prepare a guardianship or account-freezing application where money is disappearing.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.