Starting in the 1950s, Israel abducted up to 5,000 Yemenite, Mizrahi and Balkan children and gave them to Ashkenazi parents. This systematic kidnapping, which the separated families protest annually on this day, is one of Zionism’s crimes against Jews of marginalized ethnicities. 
The abductions followed a common pattern: Israeli authorities demanded parents transfer their newborn children to hospitals. A few days later, authorities notified the parents their children had died, but they were never allowed to see any evidence of that.
“This was a method of raising a new generation by... cutting off connection to their origins,” says Naama Katiee, an activist of Yemenite descent. Ashkenazi Jews looked down on Yemenite, Mizrahi, and Balkan Jews and tried to distance them from their “old ‘primitive’ community.”
Since then, the families have been trying to piece together what happened and fight for justice, recognition, and healing, but they’ve been silenced and gaslit by the Israeli government.
As of this year, the state has been trying to quietly compensate the separated families for their suffering without actually listening to their demands. To learn about the families’ demands as well as their testimonies and reunification efforts, go to edut-amram.org/en.
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