CABLE CAR CRASH ORPHAN IS BEING HELD ‘HOSTAGE’
A SIX-YEAR-OLD Jewish boy who survived a cable car disaster in Italy that killed his parents is being held “like a prisoner of Hamas” by relatives in Israel, his uncle has claimed.
The astonishing comments come as legal experts predicted that Eitan Biran may soon be returned to the aunt in Italy who is his legal guardian, having been flown to Israel by his grandfather last weekend in an alleged “kidnapping”.
Israeli-born Eitan was the sole survivor of the tragedy at Lake Maggiore in May when his mother, father, two-yearold brother and his great-grandparents were among 14 passengers killed when a cable car plummeted 60 feet to the ground on a mountainside.
He is believed to have miraculously escaped death because he was cushioned from the impact of the fall by his 30-year-old father Amit, who several years earlier had taken the family from Israel to live in Italy, where he was completing medical studies.
Having suffered extensive injuries, Eitan was placed in a medically induced coma. After regaining consciousness, he made an extraordinary recovery and was released from hospital in June. An Italian court decided that his guardian should be his father Amit’s sister, Aya BiranNirko, and that he should live with her at her home in Pavia near Milan, along with her husband Or Nirko and their two daughters.
However, the family of the boy’s mother, Tal PelegBiran, who was 26 when she died, said that she and her husband had been planning to go back to Israel. Eitan’s maternal aunt, Gali Peleg, last month said she wants to adopt him and that his parents would have wanted him to return to preserve his “Jewish and Israeli identity”.
On Saturday, Eitan’s maternal grandfather, Shmuel Peleg, picked up the boy at the home of his aunt and guardian Aya for what she thought was a day trip.
Instead, Aya said, the next she heard from the grandfather was a text message reading: “Eitan has returned home.” According to reports, Mr Peleg flew his grandson on a private jet to Israel, where the boy is now being treated at a hospital on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Prosecutors in Pavia have opened an investigation into Mr Peleg for alleged kidnapping. Aya’s lawyer Armando Simbari claimed: “This was a real international kidnapping. [My client] BiranNirko was given guardianship by two courts who wanted Eitan to have continuity in his life.” Mr Peleg strenuously denies any wrongdoing. His daughter Gali told Israeli radio: “We didn’t kidnap him. We brought him home. Eitan shouted with emotion when he saw us and said, ‘Finally I am in Israel.’ He kept on saying we are his true family.”
In Italy on Tuesday, Aya’s husband Or Nirko reacted angrily to the alleged actions of the family in Israel, claiming they “hold Eitan like IDF soldiers are held as captives in Hamas prisons are held”. Speaking to an Israeli television channel, he stressed that his wife is the legal guardian.
He said: “Unfortunately, we weren’t surprised by this abduction. We were afraid it would happen. “Despite our warnings the court continued to give the Peleg family visits. Once they had a chance they abducted the child. Shmuel did not do it alone, he had great help, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to carry out such an operation. We have no evidence so far and it is under police investigation.”
Mr Nirko objected to what he described as the decision “to uproot Eitan and force him to move in addition to the crazy trauma he went through. It’s a distorted logic that will do him a lot more damage.” Mr Nirko and his wife have asked an Israeli family court to ensure Eitan is returned to Italy. However, there is growing speculation that the authorities in Israel will try to send him back even before the court comes to a decision. An unconfirmed report on Channel 12 suggested that legal advisors have told the Israeli government it has no choice but to return Eitan to Italy. The Foreign Ministry declined a JC request for comment on the case.
Eitan holds both Israeli and Italian passports. Italy’s foreign minister Luigi Di Maio has said his government is considering an intervention.
A leading family law expert, Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari of Bar Ilan University, told the JC that the imminent return of the child is likely, unless authorities in Jerusalem become convinced that he is likely to face physical or psychological harm in Italy. There is no suggestion this is the case. She said: “Except in this scenario, I expect authorities in Israel to comply with requests from Italy.”
Professor Halperin-Kaddari explained: “Israel is signatory to the international convention for prevention of child abduction, which is one of the most important international agreements in family law.
“This creates cooperation between all countries to immediately return a child to the former place of residence in the case of a child’s abduction.
“Whenever a child is considered to have been wrongfully removed from the legal custodian, the convention expects that the child will be quickly returned.
“From what we understand, the aunt can no longer exercise her legal rights over the child. The relevant agency in Italy has probably already contacted authorities in Israel to ask for the return of Ethan to Italy.
“If this happens I would expect it to happen quickly, in days or weeks, not months.”
Prosecutors are now investigating a possible kidnapping
Legal experts say the boy will inevitably be sent back to his aunt in Italy