Will the Secrets Come Tumbling Out?

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T he 66-year-old mystery of the disappearance of more than 1000 young Yemenite immigrants — a stain on the record of the State of Israel during its infancy — will not be solved in one day. In fact it may never be solved at all.

Last week’s release of 3500 case files from the National Archives containing more than 200000 documents from three government panels raises as many questions as it does answers. Parents have long accused the State of kidnapping their children to sell them into adoption to childless Ashkenazi couples in the years following the immigration of 50000 Yemenite Jews in Operation Magic Carpet in 1949. Documents confirm that many children disappeared either right after birth or following hospitalization for pediatric illnesses. Families were told that the children had died but were not shown their bodies. Nor were they provided information about their funerals or even issued death certificates.

Relatives who rushed to examine the first batch of documents were disappointed. Many of the documents were illegible or just plain confusing they said.

“There are still so many questions that remain open and I’m afraid the protocols will not provide the answers” says Motti Dahbash who testified before the Kedmi Commission in 2001 about his younger sister Zohara. Admitted to a children’s hospital in Rosh Ha’ayin at age two officials later told the family that Zohara had died and was buried in an unknown location. Newly released information in her files confirm a contradiction in her age at death. Jewish Agency records show a Zohara Dahbash who died at age nine not two and no new information on her burial.