Shmuel Peleg, the maternal grandfather of Eitan Biran, on Monday appealed to the Tel Aviv District Court against a ruling stating that Eitan should be returned to the custody of his Italian aunt, Israel Hayom reported.
Eitan is the sole survivor of a cable car crash in Italy which killed 14 people, including both his parents and his two-year-old brother. He was brought to Israel by his grandfather Shmuel Peleg without his guardian aunt's permission.
The ruling was handed down last week, and stated that since Eitan had been living in Italy and an Italian court was set to rule on the issue, the Israeli court would refrain from involving itself in the matter.
Immediately following the ruling, the Peleg family announced that the Tel Aviv court had only interested itself in the question of whether Eitan should be returned to Italy and how he was brought to Israel. According to them, the court did not discuss at all what would be best for Eitan.
The court, the appeal claims did not pay attention "to the unusual circumstances it was facing."
"There is no reason that the discussion on the rest of Eitan's life - when he is an Israeli citizen and most of his family lives in Israel - should take place in Italy," the appeal reads.
The family also said that various options and solutions which had been suggested regarding the connection Eitan has with both sides of the family were not given enough attention.