Health Ministry panel on Yemenite Children case shut down without findings

A Health Ministry committee created to examine possible medical involvement in the Yemenite Children affair was quietly closed without conclusions and without any public announcement, according to a follow-up investigation by ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth. The committee was formed in May 2023 by then health minister Moshe Arbel to formally review the health system’s role in the disappearance of thousands of infants in Israel’s early years.

The panel was chaired by retired judge Shulamit Dotan, with professors Shlomo Mor-Yosef and Yaakov Margalit serving alongside her. It followed anger over a shelved internal 2021 draft report by Prof. Itamar Grotto and Dr. Shlomit Avni, which said the health system had been actively involved in racist practices. That draft described alleged medical experiments, autopsies on children without parental consent, separating healthy babies in immigrant camps for adoption, and false death notices. Its authors recommended a formal public apology to the families.

Despite those expectations, the new committee reportedly met only a few times, then stopped work without publishing findings. MK Yoni Moshirki, chairman of the Knesset Health Committee, said the panel has not been formally dissolved and that he will keep monitoring its work and any results. Grotto accused the ministry of trying to bury the issue, saying, “It is clear to me they are trying to sweep this under the rug.” He added that the committee should have presented the matter to families and learned from past mistakes.

Attorney Rami Tzoubary, who represents families, said four of five opened graves have not yet been identified because work stalled when the war began and the forensic institute became overloaded after October 7. He said 10 more graves still await court-approved opening. Arbel said he had not known the committee had stopped operating and said, “This would not have happened on my watch.” The Health Ministry said the committee met several times, reviewed material, but concluded it lacked the tools for a broad historical study and could not add much beyond previous official inquiries.