New bill could see graves of missing Yemenite children exhumed for DNA tests

A bill that could see the graves of Yemenite children who were allegedly kidnapped by Israeli authorities in the early years of the state exhumed for investigation is unanimously approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.

Under the legislation proposed by Likud MK Nurit Koren, families whose relatives went missing between the 1950s and 1970’s will be able to request court approval to have the remains of their suspected relatives exhumed for genetic testing.

Since the 1950s, over 1,000 immigrant families have alleged their children were systematically kidnapped from Israeli hospitals and put up for adoption, sometimes abroad. In December, the government declassified 400,000 pages of documents in an effort to bring closure to the decades-long controversy known as the “Yemenite Children Affair.”

Over the past several decades, the government has appointed three investigative committees to probe the case, with all concluding the majority of children died in the hospital and were simply buried without the families’ being informed or involved.