The Mystery of Yemenite Children: Uncovered Truths

One of the most sensitive issues in Israel over the past fifty years involves the abduction—or at the very least, disappearance—of hundreds of children from Middle Eastern Jewish communities, during the first six years after the state was founded. This case, known as the 'Yemenite Children Affair' due to the prominent role of the Yemenite community in highlighting the issue, as well as the fact that most of the 'missing' children were from Yemenite immigrant families, refuses to fade away despite various committee reports and the passing years.

Many researchers and academics, along with families and others, are convinced that the full details have not been revealed, and only with full access to the archives and official records might we finally understand the children's fate and the extent of the controversy.

Rumors of babies disappearing from their families—often with medical staff involvement—began circulating as early as the early 1950s following the first disappearances. These rumors grew, but the precarious situation of Middle Eastern Jews, living in transit camps and peripheral development towns, stifled public discussion. The issue came into the public eye 16 to 17 years later when families began receiving military draft notices for their supposedly deceased children. The families realized that the stories about sudden infant deaths were only relayed to them, while the state records still listed the children as alive.

State authorities were aware from the start of this phenomenon. Complaints were filed with the police, and the Yemenites' Federation sent a letter to the Minister of Police. Dr. Lichtig from the Ministry of Health also wrote to hospitals, mentioning the testimonies received about children's 'disappearance'. He suggested that 'quick' parents had come to hospitals and adopted children, warning against repeating such cases. Additional documents from those years show that the legal authorities in the state were well aware of the issue, and there was even a Knesset debate on it during discussions about conditions in the transit camps. MK Meir Vilner from the communist MAPAM party declared that "every unbiased Member of Knesset knows about the situation, and it is dire".

The pattern was similar in almost every case: parents with a slightly ill child, often with a mild flu or insignificant allergy, would take them to the hospital, and there they would lose track of them. Parents who approached the medical staff encountered closed doors, neglect, and reports that their child had died. In none of these cases was a death certificate issued; in most, no burial location was provided, and certainly, the parents were not allowed to see their child or know the cause of death.

Parents who persisted and made a fuss—over 30 such families—got their supposedly 'deceased' children back. But most parents never saw their children again.

Over the years, testimonies from officials and eyewitnesses gathered, leaving no room for doubt. An ambulance driver recounted how children were regularly transported to hospitals, a nurse testified that while children were often taken away, they were rarely returned to their parents, and even a welfare officer admitted that many came to the hospital areas to collect children for illegal adoptions.

At the end of the 1960s, the affair erupted publicly. Uzi Meshulam, who passed away a couple of months ago and was a former senior IDF commander and a Yemenite himself, decided to bring the case to public attention. He gathered a group of students around him, and together they demanded the establishment of a state investigation committee to probe the crime. Their harsh slogan was, "He who kidnaps a person and sells him, and he is found in his possession, shall be put to death."

Meshulam and his students were arrested and imprisoned, but the State of Israel could no longer ignore the issue. A parliamentary inquiry committee was established, followed by another, and another—ultimately four committees that collected over eight hundred detailed testimonies about the disappearances.

The final conclusion of the last, state-appointed committee was that about 60 cases of missing children remain unresolved. In several hundred other cases, the committee concluded that the children had died. Meanwhile, Meshulam's organization, 'Mishkan Ohelim', collected testimonies about 1,700 children from Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia, and even Iraq and Iran.

The fate of the lost, missing, or abducted Yemenite children remains unclear to this day. There are ongoing calls for a genuine, unbiased investigation of government archives, and it seems that as time goes by, such an investigation may become easier to conduct. So, there is still hope for answers.