STORY OF ISRAEL’S MISSING YEMENITE JEWISH CHILDREN WILL NOT GO AWAY
▶ Activists say decision to compensate families does not go far enough and truth of ‘adoptions’ must be told
The Israeli government on Monday approved a plan to offer $50 million in compensation to the families of hundreds of Yemenite Jewish children who disappeared in the country’s early years.
The announcement met a cool reception from advocacy groups that said the government had failed to apologise or accept responsibility for the affair.
Stories about the missing children have circulated in Israel for years.
Hundreds of newborns and young children of Jewish immigrants from Arab and Balkan countries, most of them from Yemen, disappeared shortly after arriving in Israel.
Many families believed their children were taken and given to childless couples of European backgrounds, both in Israel and abroad.
Although inquiries over the years dismissed claims of mass abductions, the suspicions have lingered and sustained a gulf between Jews of European origin and those of Middle Eastern backgrounds in Israel.
“This is among the most painful affairs in the history of the state of Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“The time has come for the families whose infants were taken from them to receive recognition by the state and government of Israel, and financial compensation as well.”
Arriving from Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa after Israel’s founding in 1948, many Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, immigrants were sent to shantytown transit camps and largely sidelined by the European, or Ashkenazi, leaders of the founding Labour party.
This experience contributed to widespread Mizrahi support for the Likud party, now led by Mr Netanyahu.
Among the immigrants were more than 50,000 Yemenite Jews, often poor and with large families.
In the chaos that accompanied their arrival, some children died while others were separated from their parents.
Many said the reality was far more sinister, that the establishment kidnapped these children to turn them over for adoption by Ashkenazi families in the belief that they could be given a better life.
In later years, families reported receiving letters of military induction and other documents for their dead children, raising suspicions.
Three high-profile commissions dismissed the claims and found that most children died of disease in immigration camps.
The most recent, in 2001, said it was possible that some children were handed over for adoption by individual social workers, but not as part of a national conspiracy.
However, citing privacy laws, the 2001 commission ordered the testimonies it collected to be sealed for 70 years.
Under Monday’s decision, the government will pay 150,000 shekels, or about $45,000, to families in cases where it was determined a child had died but the family had not been properly notified or where a burial site was not found.
Families where the fate of the child is unknown will receive 200,000 shekels, or about $60,000.
In a statement, the government said it “expresses regret” and “recognises the suffering of the families.” But campaign groups said the decision did not go far enough. Amram, an advocacy group that has collected testimonies from about 800 affected families, said the decision failed to include an apology and was reached without proper dialogue with the families.
“Without this component, a process of correction and healing isn’t possible,” it said. “Amram repeatedly demands that the state of Israel take responsibility for the severe injustice.”
Rafi Shubeli, of Forum Achai, an advocacy group that represented dozens of families,
accused the government of imposing a solution on the families and failing to accept responsibility or say who was responsible for their suffering.
Mr Shubeli also said families who have not already filed claims would be unable to seek compensation. He accused the government of refusing to disclose documents related to the matter.
“Our struggle will continue,” he said. “This affair isn’t going away.”
Israel has investigated the disappearances of Yemenite children three times and records are sealed for 70 years