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dpa
Tel Aviv
Rather than helping to solve a series of child disappearances from the 1950s, the exhumation of a child’s grave in Israel on Monday only served to further puzzle the authorities when it was found to contain two bodies instead of one.
The family of Usiel Churi - declared dead aged 1 in 1953 - had hoped to end the uncertainty about his fate.
The boy’s life story is involved in a complex narrative claiming that thousands of young Jewish immigrants were kidnapped or falsely declared dead so that they could be taken from their families and raised by childless Holocaust survivors.
Many of those fears were confirmed by the Israeli government in 2016, paving the way for Churi’s family to demand his coffin be opened, as a first step towards learning his fate.
However, the exhumation has only raised questions, as two sets of remains were discovered inside the coffin, according to the family.
That led to the work being stopped while investigators attempted to solve the case.
“We were told the examination can only continue after a court decision,” said Masal Berko, 64, Churi’s sister, adding that she was disappointed.
The Israeli Health Ministry had hoped to take DNA samples from the grave in a cemetery in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv. It made no statement after the discovery in the grave.
Churi is one of thousands of children of Jewish immigrants from Yemen and other countries who disappeared in Israel in the 1950s in unexplained circumstances. In total, it is estimated that 1,500 to 5,000 children were involved.
Many of the children’s fates have never been discovered. After a series of investigative commissions failed to bring clarity to the matter, a law was passed in 2018 allowing for suspected victims to be exhumed.
Last year, the Israeli government expressed its regret and announced compensation payments of 162 million shekels ($48.4 million) for affected families.
Churi, born in 1952, was declared dead under suspicious circumstances when he was 1, according to his family, who hail from the Tunisian island of Djerba and who have always doubted he was in the grave which bore his name.
“Already 69 years have passed since he disappeared,” Berko told Israel’s Kan channel at the grave opening. “I want to believe that the state will tell us the truth. We only want the truth.”
The Amram Association, which has investigated many of the charges, estimates that between 1,500 and 5,000 children were taken away from their families. Many of those affected were Jewish migrants to Israel from Yemen, though families from other parts of the world including Tunisia, Iran and Iraq, were also affected.
Many disappeared in the chaos that accompanied the massive airlift of so many families to Israel. In Churi’s case, his sister says that he had been suffering from polio, but had been in no danger of death when health authorities offered to care for him to spare the family long drives to the hospital.
“The child was healthy, he just limped a little. A few days later, my father suddenly got the news that the child was dead,” said Berko, adding that her parents were only ever shown a bundle of material, never an actual body.
Tel Aviv
Rather than helping to solve a series of child disappearances from the 1950s, the exhumation of a child’s grave in Israel on Monday only served to further puzzle the authorities when it was found to contain two bodies instead of one.
The family of Usiel Churi - declared dead aged 1 in 1953 - had hoped to end the uncertainty about his fate.
The boy’s life story is involved in a complex narrative claiming that thousands of young Jewish immigrants were kidnapped or falsely declared dead so that they could be taken from their families and raised by childless Holocaust survivors.
Many of those fears were confirmed by the Israeli government in 2016, paving the way for Churi’s family to demand his coffin be opened, as a first step towards learning his fate.
However, the exhumation has only raised questions, as two sets of remains were discovered inside the coffin, according to the family.
That led to the work being stopped while investigators attempted to solve the case.
“We were told the examination can only continue after a court decision,” said Masal Berko, 64, Churi’s sister, adding that she was disappointed.
The Israeli Health Ministry had hoped to take DNA samples from the grave in a cemetery in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv. It made no statement after the discovery in the grave.
Churi is one of thousands of children of Jewish immigrants from Yemen and other countries who disappeared in Israel in the 1950s in unexplained circumstances. In total, it is estimated that 1,500 to 5,000 children were involved.
Many of the children’s fates have never been discovered. After a series of investigative commissions failed to bring clarity to the matter, a law was passed in 2018 allowing for suspected victims to be exhumed.
Last year, the Israeli government expressed its regret and announced compensation payments of 162 million shekels ($48.4 million) for affected families.
Churi, born in 1952, was declared dead under suspicious circumstances when he was 1, according to his family, who hail from the Tunisian island of Djerba and who have always doubted he was in the grave which bore his name.
“Already 69 years have passed since he disappeared,” Berko told Israel’s Kan channel at the grave opening. “I want to believe that the state will tell us the truth. We only want the truth.”
The Amram Association, which has investigated many of the charges, estimates that between 1,500 and 5,000 children were taken away from their families. Many of those affected were Jewish migrants to Israel from Yemen, though families from other parts of the world including Tunisia, Iran and Iraq, were also affected.
Many disappeared in the chaos that accompanied the massive airlift of so many families to Israel. In Churi’s case, his sister says that he had been suffering from polio, but had been in no danger of death when health authorities offered to care for him to spare the family long drives to the hospital.
“The child was healthy, he just limped a little. A few days later, my father suddenly got the news that the child was dead,” said Berko, adding that her parents were only ever shown a bundle of material, never an actual body.
