An Australian father’s perfect life suddenly came crashing down after the birth of his daughter. Now he is trapped in Israel until the year 9999 and ends up in a nightmare.
“I just wanted to see my kids,” pharmaceutical chemist Noam Huppert, 46, told Daily Mail Australia. “But now I can never leave.”
An Israeli court has banned Mr Huppert from traveling for nearly 8,000 years to ensure he stays in the country to pay his child support after his divorce turned nasty.
And even though he pays AU$3,000 a month to his ex-wife – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – he still doesn’t even get to see his kids.
“They are now estranged from me,” he said. “And my ex-wife even got a restraining order against me. I’m stuck here paying – and I can’t even see them.’
The perfect life of Australian father Noam Hubbert (pictured with his son) collapsed after the birth of his daughter. Now he is trapped in Israel until the year 9999 and ends up in a nightmare
The Israeli-born father of two and his wife moved to Australia in 2007 with their two-year-old son for a fresh start
Settling into a three-bedroom bungalow on a leafy street in Ryde, north-west Sydney, the family quickly settled into the Australian way of life.
The Israeli-born father of two and his wife moved to Australia in 2007 with their two-year-old son for a fresh start.
Settling in a three-bedroom bungalow on a leafy street in Ryde, north-west Sydney, they soon became accustomed to the Australian way of life.
“We wanted to go to Australia to get away from Israel,” he admitted. ‘I realized that Israel was not a good place to live and we chose to come to Australia.
‘We simply had the best life in Sydney: weekends at the beach, brunching and enjoying the sport. It was an absolute dream.
‘We traveled all over the country and loved Australia’s unique nature. It was so much fun. It was just great.’
But their idyllic life suddenly came crashing down after they celebrated the birth of their daughter in 2010 and his wife was hit with a postpartum baby blues.
After struggling with the depression and juggling two young children, Mr. Huppert’s wife decided to return to Israel to be closer to her family for support.
Mr Huppert initially thought the move was temporary and remained in Australia waiting for his family to return, until he realised: ‘She had kidnapped my children.
“She didn’t even say she wanted a divorce at first, she just said she wanted me to come to Israel. I said I wasn’t going there; I wanted her to come back with the kids.’
Eventually, he launched an unsuccessful legal battle under the Hague Convention to try to force them to return to Australia, where Mr. Huppert was now an Australian citizen, as was his Sydney-born daughter.
“But the Israeli court refused,” he said. That was to be expected, though, as the court rarely sides with the father over the mother.
“So I traveled to Israel to try to see my children, but even then my wife was giving me a hard time and I didn’t want to see them.”
Noam and his young family left Israel in 2007 after realizing that “it wasn’t a good place to live” to make a better life in Australia, where he and his daughter became citizens. (Image: Protesters and Israeli police clash during a July 24 demonstration in Jerusalem)
He has now been trapped in Israel since 2013 and cannot leave, even on vacation
He returned to court in Israel and was given biweekly weekend access of about four days a month.
But that came at the cost of never being able to leave the country, not even to go on vacation, on the grounds of a postponement of departure to avoid running out of child support.
“She received an application for child support equal to 50 percent of my salary,” he revealed from his home in Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv.
“The child support agency took the amounts and said I owed 1.8 million shekels (about A$700,000).
“I can never leave the country until it is paid in full, or before the year 9999.”
The ban has imprisoned him in Israel for the past 10 years without any escape, and he still faces years of imprisonment behind Israel’s borders due to the ruling.
He added: “According to the court’s ruling, I’m actually stuck here indefinitely, but their computer system only lasts until 9999, so almost 8000 years.”
He admits he knew there was a risk he could be imprisoned in the country by the Israeli justice system, but says: “I wanted to be next to my children.
However, the travel ban is not the standard. I knew my wife would have to file a motion for it to go into effect, but I didn’t think that would be a problem when I left Australia.
“I didn’t think she would, but she did.”
His life has since become hell, trapped in a country where he had already decided he didn’t want to live and cut off from his family and the happy life in Australia.
He desperately wants to be able to return to the idyllic life he enjoyed in Sydney
Noam Huppert says once his $700,000 child support payments are finally paid off, he’ll get right back on a plane to Australia
The ban prohibits him from even owning a passport, and if he misses even one child support payment, he is immediately thrown into jail for three weeks each time.
The courts will also deduct any outstanding amounts from his salary directly from his employer, once he has taken his full pay package and more, leaving Mr Huppert to owe his bosses hundreds.
“I want to go on vacation,” he said. ‘I want to feel free to come and go as I please.
“I only came here to see my kids, but now I don’t even see them – and I’m just forced to live here and never leave.
“I’m being held here like a prisoner just to pay my child support.”
His son has now turned 18 and is no longer eligible for child support, but Mr. Huppert still has five years to pay for the daughter he never meets, even though she lives only 25 minutes away from him.
“My wife has made them not want to see me, but they’re not saying I’m a bad father or anything like that,” he added.
At this point, he still owes about $200,000 in outstanding child support until his daughter turns 18 in 2028.
“They just say they have no more reason to meet me.
“But I still have to pay for it.”
He now hopes to save enough money to pay off the outstanding amount within three years so that he can finally be freed from Israel and return to Sydney.
At this point, he still owes about $200,000 in outstanding child support until his daughter turns 18 in 2028.
He said he had previously tried unsuccessfully to run an online fundraiser to raise money.
“People were understandably reluctant to pay alimony for me!” he said. ‘But that’s fine, I hope to be able to pay the remaining amount in one go in a few years’ time.
“In three years it will be less than $100,000 and I hope I can finally pay that off and finally get out of here.
“Then I jump straight on a flight to Australia, try to get a job there — and start getting my life back on track.”