The DNA sample from remains in a grave dug up in July in order to prove that the Yemenite child who died in 1952 was buried there and not kidnapped and put up for adoption were found, in fact, to be those of the child, Israel’s Channel 12 reported. It is the first time that Israel’s Health Ministry was able to produce a genetic profile of one of the children from the Yemenite Children affair.
The test was requested by surviving family members Yosef Melamud. The probability that it is actually him is s 97.8, according to the report.
More than 1,000 families who immigrated to Israel mostly from Yemen, have alleged that their children were taken from Israeli hospitals and given for adoption to Jewish families both in Israel and Jewish communities abroad that could provide them with a less difficult life. Many of the families did not see a body or receive a death certificate.
Several state commissions of inquiry have found that the children did, indeed die of diseases and were not given away for adoption. The most recent probe, in 2001, acknowledged that some children may have been put up for adoption by individual social workers but not as port of a national effort. A $50 million compensation program was approved in 2021.