Former chief rabbi of Israel under investigation in rabbinical court blackmail case

The allegations reportedly relate to pressuring the alleged victim into changing rulings on land endowments - the more than a thousand plots of land managed by the courts.

But lawyers for the unnamed former chief rabbi dismissed the case, saying: "The court, which examined the entire investigation file in depth, determined that the evidentiary basis is thin, and that the entire case ‘hangs on a thread’ as it defined it."

And, in a further twist, the head of Lahav 433 is himself the subject of an internal investigation over allegations of impropriety.

Deputy Commissioner Manny Binyamin was summoned for interrogation by the Department for Internal Police Investigations on suspicion of breach of trust and abuse of authority.

The allegations relate to an apparent conflict of interest relating to his role in a separate case.

The investigation comes just as the Knesset passed a bill to temporarily expand the authority of the rabbinical courts.

At the moment, the courts only have jurisdiction in matters of divorce, wills, inheritance and religious conversion, as well as the management of land endowments.

But lawmakers voted by 53-38 to expand this remit to cases involving child support payments for a two-year period.

The courts were allowed to decide such cases until 2006, when the Supreme Court ruled that they had no standing to do so. This was reaffirmed by another Supreme Court ruling this year, prompting the new legislation.

Under the bill, sponsored by the main Charedi parties, both parents will have to consent to involve the rabbinical court in their case.

But some critics have claimed that the potential power imbalance within the parents' relationship could see this exploited.