Only one in four husbands who refused to grant their wives a get (Jewish bill of divorce) were punished by the rabbinical courts in 2006 - this according to figures published Wednesday by the courts' administration. A few years ago the courts were authorized to impose sanctions against recalcitrant husbands, including suspending their driver's license, freezing their bank accounts and barring their departure from Israel. However, data collated by rabbinical courts director Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan shows that sanctions were imposed in only 51 of roughly 200 cases. Nine of the husbands were sent to jail.

Organizations that assist women in obtaining a get claim the rabbinical courts are too lenient toward recalcitrant husbands, thus encouraging them to continue refusing to release their wives from marriage. The courts say they refrain from imposing sanctions for fear of causing a "forced get" against the husband's will, which is invalid under halakha (Jewish law). Ben-Dahan said yesterday that the existing sanctions are ineffective against individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds, as they have neither a driver's license nor money in the bank. Ben-Dahan does, however, support taking away monthly allowances from the National Insurance Institute (NII).

Ben-Dahan says there are just as many women who refuse to accept a get as there are men who refuse to give one. The courts, he adds, have also imposed sanctions against women but only in isolated cases, since such sanctions must, by law, be approved by the president of the Supreme Rabbinical Court, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar.

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The summary of the rabbinical courts' activities in 2006 shows a slight increase in divorces over 2005. There were 9,963 divorces in 2006, compared to 9,595 the previous year. The event that had the greatest effect on divorce rates last year was the war in Lebanon, during which time 30 percent fewer divorce suits were filed. The Haifa Rabbinical Court reported an 18-percent drop for the entire year. Ben-Dahan says that many couples who had begun divorce proceedings before the war notified the Haifa court that they were withdrawing their suits due to the war.

A similar trend was evident in towns bombarded with Katyusha rockets during the war. In Tiberias, for example, there was a 24.5-percent decrease in divorce cases - 77 in 2006 compared to 102 in 2005. In Kiryat Motzkin, the decline was over 30 percent, but nearby Kiryat Yam saw a sharp increase - from 53 divorces in 2005 to 87 in 2006.

The cities that recorded the greatest number of divorces were Tel Aviv - 723 couples; Jerusalem - 673 couples; Rishon Letzion - 411 couples, and Haifa - 364 couples. Divorce cases also climbed in Shoham, where 16 couples divorced in 2005 and 27 in 2006. Safed rabbinical courts handled 40 divorces in 2005 and 57 in 2006, and Kiryat Arba's figures almost doubled, from six two years ago to 11 last year.

The report published Wednesday also dealt with marriages, and showed that an increased number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union are being married by the rabbinate. Most of the rabbinical courts require immigrants from the FSU to verify their Judaism through a special procedure in order to be married by the rabbinate. In 2006, some 4,000 such verification procedures were conducted, compared to an average of 3,500 in previous years.