Speaking of Nazism!
Miriam
Mondoweiss
Thousands in Jerusalem protest abduction of Yemenite babies following
disclosure some were experimented on
Shiraz Grinbaum and Yotam Ronenon June 26, 201726 Comments
The surviving relatives of Yemenite Jewish children that families says were
abducted by staff at state-run medical facilities and illicitly sold into
adoption protest in Jerusalem. The demonstrators called for the Israeli
government to investigate the alleged systematic kidnappings known as the
Yemenite Children Affair, June 21, 2017. (Photo: Shiraz Grinbaum and Yotam
Ronen / Activestills.org)
Over 2,000 Israeli Yemenite Jews and supporting activists gathered in Jerusalem
last Wednesday to mark an annual day of awareness for what families say was a
state-sponsored program to abduct Yemenite Jewish infants and other Israeli
children born to parents who were recent immigrants from Arab countries.
Known as the Yemenite Children Affair, in the first decade after the
establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, there was a systematic kidnapping
of newborn Yemenite children, carried out by Israeli hospitals and government
institutions. Mothers, who often were in Israel for a short time and did not
speak Hebrew, would enter hospitals or other state facilities to give birth.
Once the child was born medical staff told the parents the child died
unexpectedly. Yet none of the families were shown bodies or burial documents.
Many of the families did not practice any mourning ceremonies because they
believed their missing children were still alive.
The babies who went missing, parents claim, were given away to childless
Ashkenazi families (Jews of European descent–the dominant ethnic group in
Israel at the time), leaving the Yemenite families with no answers regarding
their children’s fate. In most cases, the families were told the children died
unexpectedly.
There have been a few national state committees tasked with investigating the
matter over the decades, but they were previously accused of ignoring real
evidence and helping government efforts to cover up the affair. Following
recent pressure by the third generation of Jewish Yemenite activists, part of
the national archives and state protocols were disclosed to the public.
Last year Benjamin Netanyahu had more than 3,500 government files on the
investigation into the disappearance of the childrenpublished online. A
Knesset committee followed up by confirming earlier this month that Yemenite
babies died during the 1950s after state medical institutions conducted
experiments on them. Despite the disclosures, the families are still in the
dark regarding their relatives, and the matter is still an open wound in the
Israeli society.
Seeking more answers, the Israeli nonprofit Amram organized the protest in
Jerusalem last week under the title “Recognition, Justice, Healing,” calling on
the government to open all of the national archives, which could allow for
family reunification. The demonstrators also want the affair recognized as a
crime against humanity.
This was the largest protest on the topic in the history of Israel to date.
