Yemenite imigrants in Rosh Ha'ayin in 1950 - Israel GPO
The government approved this past Monday a principled decision determining a one-time compensation to all the families whose children disappeared in the affair of "the kidnapping of Yemenite children" over seventy years ago. The payment will vary between 150-200 thousand shekel. The plan was presented by PM Netanyahu and Security Minister Benny Ganz and was supported by an overwhelming majority of ministers.
At the opening of the government meeting, Netanyahu said, "I am requesting government approval on a decision for compensation to the families who suffered from the affair of the children of families of Yemenite, Balkan and Eastern extraction. This is a very painful chapter in the annals of the State of Israel and the time has come for the families of abducted babies which were seized from them to receive acknowledgement from the Israeli government thereof and to give to those families who suffered an unbearable pain some compensation and a bit of the consolation which they deserve."
It should be noted that aside from the monetary recompense, this move constitutes a dramatic decision of assuming official responsibility for the first time, for one of the most difficult affairs which the State has known and which has not yet been finally and sufficiently addressed.
The text of the resolution certified that "the Israeli government expresses pain over the events which took place in the first days of its statehood, and recognizes the suffering of those families whose children were part of this painful chapter. The affair of the children of immigrant families from Yemen, the Balkan and the East is a very distressing chapter in the annals of our State of Israel. This subject has continued to accompany our public agenda for decades and constitutes a festering wound in Israeli society. A monetary restitution cannot hope to bring balm to the suffering which these families underwent, but notwithstanding, the State of Israel hopes that it will extend some help in rehabilitating them and healing the social wound which this chapter created in our society."
