JERUSALEM (AP) – The Israeli government on Monday approved a plan to offer $ 50 million in compensation to the families of hundreds of Yemeni children who disappeared in the country’s first years of establishment.
But the announcement received a cold reception from advocacy groups who said the government did not apologize or take responsibility for the case.
Stories about missing children have been circulating in Israel for years. Hundreds of newborn babies and young children of Jewish immigrants from Arab and Balkan countries, most of them from Yemen, mysteriously disappeared shortly after their arrival in the country.
Many families believe that their children were taken and given to childless couples of European origin, both in Israel and abroad. Although previous investigations rejected the allegations of mass kidnappings, the suspicions persisted and contributed to a long-standing line of failure between Jews of European origin and those of the Middle East.
“This is one of the most painful cases in the history of the State of Israel,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The time has come for families whose children have been taken from them to receive recognition from the state and government of Israel, as well as financial compensation.”
Arriving from Arab-speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa after the establishment of Israel in 1948, many Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, immigrants were sent to slum transit camps and largely marginalized by the founder’s European leaders or Ashkenazi Labor Party. This painful experience contributed to Mizrahi’s broad support for the Likud party, now led by Netanyahu.
Among the immigrants there were more than 50,000 Yemeni Jews, generally poor and with large families. In the chaos that accompanied its influx, some children died while others were separated from their parents.
But many say the reality was much more sinister, that the establishment kidnapped these children to hand them over for adoption by Ashkenazi families in the belief that they could give them a better life. In later years, families reported having received warnings of military possession and other documents for their supposedly “dead” children, raising more suspicions.
Three high-level commissions rejected the allegations and found that most children died of illnesses in the immigration camps. The latter, in 2001, said that it was possible for some children to be delivered for adoption by individual social workers, but not as part of a national conspiracy. However, citing privacy laws, he ordered the statements he collected to be sealed for 70 years.
According to Monday’s decision, the government will pay 150,000 shekels, or about $ 45,000, to families in cases where it was determined that a child died, but the family was not properly notified or where the burial site was not found.
Families where the child’s fate is unknown will receive 200,000 shekels, or about $ 60,000.
In a statement, the government said it “expresses regret” and “acknowledges the suffering of families”. But activist groups said the decision did not go far enough.
Amram, an advocacy group that collected testimonies from some 800 affected families, said the decision did not include an apology and was reached without adequate dialogue with the families.
“Without this component, a process of correction and cure is not possible,” he said. “Amram repeatedly demands that the state of Israel assume responsibility for severe injustice.”
Rafi Shubeli of “Forum Achai”, a advocacy group that represented dozens of families, accused the government of imposing a solution on families and of not accepting responsibility or saying who caused their suffering.
He also said that families who had not yet filed the lawsuits could not seek compensation and accused the government of refusing to release documents related to the case.
“Our fight will continue,” he said. “This case is not going away.”