Excerpt: "As many as 5,000 Mizrahim Jewish babies, mostly Yemenis, were
reported missing in Israel between 1948 and 1954. Families say they were
given away."
Yemeni Jewish immigrants arrive in Israel in 1950. (photo: Reuters)
Israel's Stolen Babies: Shocking Story of a Decades-Old Secret
By teleSUR
08 August 16
As many as 5,000 Mizrahim Jewish babies, mostly Yemenis, were reported
missing in Israel between 1948 and 1954. Families say they were given away.
An Israeli official recently acknowledgted that "hundreds" of mostly Yemeni
babies were kidnapped from their parents in the early years of the state of
Israel, reopening allegations that as many as 5,000 Mizrahim Jewish newborns
were given to childless Ashkenazi Holocaust survivors.
Minister Tzachi Hanegbi's comments, reported by Haaretz, refute the
conclusions of three official commissions tasked with investigating the
issue. Those panels concluded separately that most of the babies reported
missing in the years following the creation of Israel in 1948 died of
disease and were buried. The infants' families have largely rejected that
assertion, arguing that their disappeared children were kidnapped and put up
for adoption or sold without their knowledge.
But although Hanegbi's comments represent the first time an Israeli official
acknowledged the mass kidnappings - and may be a catalyst for reopening the
investigation - his remarks have not offered much clarity about the missing
babies.
"They took the children, and gave them away. I don't know where," Hanegbi
said in an interview with the Israeli television program Meet the Press.
When pressed about the possible involvement of state officials and the
government's knowledge of the practice, he claimed "We may never know."
The minister has been tasked with re-examining confidential archives of more
than a million pages of materials compiled by the three expert commissions
that previously investigated the disappearances. But it remains unclear if
the state was complicit in the campaign, or if medical personnel were
actively involved in kidnappings, and Hanegbi has so far not been
forthcoming about the questions.
But many critics are more direct about the crux of the issue. Shoshana
Madmoni-Gerber, author of the book "Israeli Media and the Framing of
Internal Conflict: The Yemenite Babies Affair," told Al Jazeera that whether
the Israeli government actively organized kidnapping or simply turned a
blind eye to an egregious problem, the "forcible transfer" of babies from on
ethnic group to another amounted to "genocide" under the United Nations'
guidelines, which deem "complicity in genocide" a punishable act under the
1951 convention.
Meanwhile, Israeli journalist Yael Tzadok, who has covered the issue for two
decades, told Al Jazeera that the Yemeni babies crisis is "Israel's darkest
secret," which could threaten "causing an earthquake" if the truth of the
fact that "Jews kidnapped other Jews" in the wake of the Holocaust came
fully to light.
Israel's so-called Kedmi inquiry that looked into the case between 1995 and
2001 found that between 1,500 and 5,000 children went missing between 1948
and 1954. The disappeared infants included about one in every eight Yemeni
babies born in Israel amid the influx of some 50,000 Yemeni Jews in the
state's first six years as part of Operation on Wings of Eagles immigration
program, nicknamed Operation Magic Carpet. But according to Haaretz, the
investigative commission showed "an absence of all suspicion" and failed to
answer the key question of who was responsible for the mass disappearances
of babies of Mizrahim parents - Israeli Jews originating from Arab countries
- especially Yemenis.
An Al Jazeera investigation featuring stories of two of Israel's stolen
children revealed that the Ashkenazi parents deceived their "adopted"
children for years, obscuring the truth about their birth. When the adopted
children tried to find information about their biological families as
adults, their adoption records were sealed, making it more difficult to
unravel their mysterious stories.
Some analysts have linked the disappeared Yemeni baby scandal to a process
of so-called "de-Arabization" in Zionist development in favor of privileging
Ashkenazi families.
The shocking history of Israel's stolen children draws chilling parallels to
the mass disappearance of infants in Argentina under the 1976-1983 military
dictatorship.
While Argentina's kidnapping had less to do with racism and ethnic division,
the forced disappearance of some 30,000 victims and kidnapping of hundreds
of babies was part of a concerted U.S.-backed Dirty War that sought to stamp
out resistance to the military government in what has been called a
"genocide" against political dissidents. A generation of hundreds of missing
children grew up in wealthy military and regime-linked families without
knowing their true identities.
The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo - an iconic human rights organization
that has fought for justice for dictatorship abuses since 1977 and has
managed to reunite 120 stolen grandchildren with their biological families -
has described the historic human rights crisis as the "abduction,
concealment, and falsification of a baby's identity under the framework of
state terrorism."
Argentina's quest for justice for dictatorship-era crimes, including the
mass abduction of children of political dissidents, has been long and
arduous, and the dedicated activism of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo
over the course of nearly 40 years has been a key pillar in raising national
and international awareness about the historical abuses.
But unlike in Israel, where state officials have really just begun to
vaguely acknowledge the reality of the dark past of stolen babies,
Argentina's official recognition of a state campaign of forced
disappearances in the 1984 Truth Commission and the creation in 1992 of the
National Commission for Right to Identity to focus on the search for missing
children have also laid a critical foundation to even begin meaningful
investigations.
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Yemeni Jewish immigrants arrive in Israel in 1950. (photo: Reuters)
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Israels-Stolen-Babies-Shocking-Story-o
f-a-Decades-old-Secret-20160807-0002.htmlhttp://www.telesurtv.net/english/ne
ws/Israels-Stolen-Babies-Shocking-Story-of-a-Decades-old-Secret-20160807-000
2.html
Israel's Stolen Babies: Shocking Story of a Decades-Old Secret
By teleSUR
08 August 16
As many as 5,000 Mizrahim Jewish babies, mostly Yemenis, were reported
missing in Israel between 1948 and 1954. Families say they were given away.
n Israeli official recently acknowledgted that "hundreds" of mostly Yemeni
babies were kidnapped from their parents in the early years of the state of
Israel, reopening allegations that as many as 5,000 Mizrahim Jewish newborns
were given to childless Ashkenazi Holocaust survivors.
Minister Tzachi Hanegbi's comments, reported by Haaretz, refute the
conclusions of three official commissions tasked with investigating the
issue. Those panels concluded separately that most of the babies reported
missing in the years following the creation of Israel in 1948 died of
disease and were buried. The infants' families have largely rejected that
assertion, arguing that their disappeared children were kidnapped and put up
for adoption or sold without their knowledge.
But although Hanegbi's comments represent the first time an Israeli official
acknowledged the mass kidnappings - and may be a catalyst for reopening the
investigation - his remarks have not offered much clarity about the missing
babies.
"They took the children, and gave them away. I don't know where," Hanegbi
said in an interview with the Israeli television program Meet the Press.
When pressed about the possible involvement of state officials and the
government's knowledge of the practice, he claimed "We may never know."
The minister has been tasked with re-examining confidential archives of more
than a million pages of materials compiled by the three expert commissions
that previously investigated the disappearances. But it remains unclear if
the state was complicit in the campaign, or if medical personnel were
actively involved in kidnappings, and Hanegbi has so far not been
forthcoming about the questions.
But many critics are more direct about the crux of the issue. Shoshana
Madmoni-Gerber, author of the book "Israeli Media and the Framing of
Internal Conflict: The Yemenite Babies Affair," told Al Jazeera that whether
the Israeli government actively organized kidnapping or simply turned a
blind eye to an egregious problem, the "forcible transfer" of babies from on
ethnic group to another amounted to "genocide" under the United Nations'
guidelines, which deem "complicity in genocide" a punishable act under the
1951 convention.
Meanwhile, Israeli journalist Yael Tzadok, who has covered the issue for two
decades, told Al Jazeera that the Yemeni babies crisis is "Israel's darkest
secret," which could threaten "causing an earthquake" if the truth of the
fact that "Jews kidnapped other Jews" in the wake of the Holocaust came
fully to light.
Israel's so-called Kedmi inquiry that looked into the case between 1995 and
2001 found that between 1,500 and 5,000 children went missing between 1948
and 1954. The disappeared infants included about one in every eight Yemeni
babies born in Israel amid the influx of some 50,000 Yemeni Jews in the
state's first six years as part of Operation on Wings of Eagles immigration
program, nicknamed Operation Magic Carpet. But according to Haaretz, the
investigative commission showed "an absence of all suspicion" and failed to
answer the key question of who was responsible for the mass disappearances
of babies of Mizrahim parents - Israeli Jews originating from Arab countries
- especially Yemenis.
An Al Jazeera investigation featuring stories of two of Israel's stolen
children revealed that the Ashkenazi parents deceived their "adopted"
children for years, obscuring the truth about their birth. When the adopted
children tried to find information about their biological families as
adults, their adoption records were sealed, making it more difficult to
unravel their mysterious stories.
Some analysts have linked the disappeared Yemeni baby scandal to a process
of so-called "de-Arabization" in Zionist development in favor of privileging
Ashkenazi families.
The shocking history of Israel's stolen children draws chilling parallels to
the mass disappearance of infants in Argentina under the 1976-1983 military
dictatorship.
While Argentina's kidnapping had less to do with racism and ethnic division,
the forced disappearance of some 30,000 victims and kidnapping of hundreds
of babies was part of a concerted U.S.-backed Dirty War that sought to stamp
out resistance to the military government in what has been called a
"genocide" against political dissidents. A generation of hundreds of missing
children grew up in wealthy military and regime-linked families without
knowing their true identities.
The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo - an iconic human rights organization
that has fought for justice for dictatorship abuses since 1977 and has
managed to reunite 120 stolen grandchildren with their biological families -
has described the historic human rights crisis as the "abduction,
concealment, and falsification of a baby's identity under the framework of
state terrorism."
Argentina's quest for justice for dictatorship-era crimes, including the
mass abduction of children of political dissidents, has been long and
arduous, and the dedicated activism of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo
over the course of nearly 40 years has been a key pillar in raising national
and international awareness about the historical abuses.
But unlike in Israel, where state officials have really just begun to
vaguely acknowledge the reality of the dark past of stolen babies,
Argentina's official recognition of a state campaign of forced
disappearances in the 1984 Truth Commission and the creation in 1992 of the
National Commission for Right to Identity to focus on the search for missing
children have also laid a critical foundation to even begin meaningful
investigations.
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