Who pays for a child's international flights when one parent lives abroad after an Israeli divorce?

Contact travel is handled as an expense of the parenting arrangement rather than as a separate legal category. The Family Court sets contact (hesderei shehut) by reference to the child's best interests, and the travel that makes contact physically possible is treated as part of that package alongside extraordinary expenses such as therapy or private schooling. A welfare officer's report often shapes the outcome, particularly for young children who cannot fly alone. Courts look at which parent generated the distance, what each parent earns, whether the relocation was consensual or contested, and whether the child is old enough to travel unaccompanied. The resulting order can split costs by percentage, alternate them trip by trip, or place them entirely on one parent.

The detail in the order matters more than the headline split. A clause reading only that the parties will share travel costs generates fresh litigation within a year, because it settles nothing about how many trips, who books, in which currency, and who absorbs an airline cancellation. Ask for the number of trips per year, a booking deadline measured in days before departure, the cabin class, who escorts a young child and pays the unaccompanied minor fee, and who holds the passport between trips. Foreign parents should also fix the currency and linkage, since a sum set in shekels erodes for a parent earning dollars or euros, and our guide on visitation rights for non-resident parents explains how these orders are structured.

From the full guide: Child Visitation Rights Israel: Non-Resident Parent Guide

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