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Pressure increases to open files on ‘missing’ Yemenite children
Leaders from across Israel’s political spectrum yesterday pledged support to open official files which would pave the way to reveal the truth behind an alleged attempt to forcibly assimilate children from recently-arrived Yemenite families during the 1950s.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said via social media, “the time has come to know what happened and to do justice here”. He will apparently appoint Minister without Portfolio Tzachi Hanegbi to lead the efforts. Opposition leader Isaac Herzog also said: “The minutes of the Yemenite children affair should be revealed and the families should receive answers.”
Yesterday, coinciding with the annual remembrance day for missing Yemenite children, during a debate on the issue at the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, politicians called for the documents to be made public, which could require a change in legislation. MKs Rachel Azaria (Kulanu), Yossi Yonah (Zionist Union), Yoav Ben-Tzur (Shas) and Nurit Koren (Likud), all revealed that they have family or friends among the ‘missing’ children.
Questions over the fate of approximately one thousand children have existed for decades. Jews from Yemen, overwhelmingly deeply religious, arrived in Israel in large numbers during the 1950s following increased persecution. It is alleged that infants were removed from these families shortly after childbirth and handed to families of European origin, in an attempt to forcibly assimilate them. The Yemenite families were routinely told that their children had died and been buried in unmarked graves. However, it has been noted that an extremely high rate of infant mortality existed at a time in which Israel’s nascent public services were also struggling to cope with a growing population.
Three probes into the affair since 1967 all concluded that the majority of children had died. The most recent investigation, a State committee in 2001, concluded that just 56 cases were unresolved. However, the transcripts from the investigation have been sealed until 2071, on the basis that they concern the privacy of those who may still be alive and consequently must remain out of the public domain for seventy years.