Israel always is torn between its identity as a modern democratic state and a Jewish/religious state. For example, there is no civil marriage or divorce; all marriage and divorce must go through the religious courts. While the more common scenario is that a husband refuses to grant his wife a divorce or gett and prevents her from getting remarried under Jewish law (such a woman is referred to as an aguna), an article in the JPost reported that in a strange twist, a family court judge recently ordered a woman to pay 25,000 NIS for each year she refused to accept a gett from her estranged husband. While according to the Torah, a man may divorce his wife without her consent, that practice has been rabbinically proscribed since
"about one thousand years ago, [when] the famous Cherem (a decree under penalty of ban) of Rabbeinu Gershom was instituted, stating that a woman cannot be divorced without her consent. Thus, the 'playing field' was evened. As Rabbeinu Aher states in his famous dictum, 'The Rabbis acted to equalize the woman's power with the man's.' Now, for all practical purposes, neither side in a marital dispute is entitled to a Get unless there exist very specific grounds for one."
(From The New York State Get Bill and its Halachic Ramifications by Rabbi Chaim Malinowitz.)
Rabbi Malinowitz's article seems to say that coercion via a financial penalty imposed by a court on a recalcitrant wife (as well as on a husband) can invalidate the gett. But my understanding of that article is that if the Beit Din has already ruled that there are grounds for divorce and orders the wife to accept the gett then the coercive nature of the monetary fine is mitigated. For a technical discussion of the questions that a Beis Din poses to ensure the woman's consent see this article by Rabbi Chaim Jachter. ***Update: See this article about a man who was fined by the court for not giving his wife a gett. And this article about a law that is under consideration to expedite the process of fining recalcitrant husbands.***
Furthermore, because the prohibition against divorcing one's wife against her will is of rabbinic origin, there is an escape clause. A man can still divorce his wife against her will if he gets one hundred rabbis to agree to create an exception. This is called a Heter Meah Rabbanim. For an article on the misuse of that device see here. The policy of the Beit Din of America is:
11. The Beth Din of America agrees that Heter Me'ah Rabbanim should be used only in extreme cases, such as severe and irreversible mental illness.
12. The Beth Din of America will not perform a Heter Me'ah Rabbanim without a hashlashas haget - a Get provided for the woman and held in escrow by the Beth Din to be delivered to the woman as soon as she is prepared to accept it. The Beth Din of America will not perform a Heter Me'ah Rabbanim when the woman is prepared to accept a Get.13. The Beth Din of America believes strongly in the continuing force today of Cherem De'Rabbeinu Gershom which prohibits polygamy. The Beth Din will not permit a man to marry or to date other women until he has delivered a Get to his wife.
