Violent abduction of Yemenite Jewish children in Israel: A historical study on the intergenerational dynamics of oppression and resistance

Abstract

In the founding years of the State of Israel, numerous Jewish children who immigrated to Israel with their parents from Arab countries, especially Yemen, were removed and disappeared. Some of these children were adopted by people in Europe and the USA, while others remained missing. The article reconstructs the efforts to clarify the fate of these children. The disappearance of the children is analysed in the context of the Zionist founding myth and the colonial genesis of the State of Israel and interpreted as an early form of bio-politics with racist connotations. Particular attention is paid to the traumatic consequences of this practice for the people affected and the psycho-structure of Israeli society. Finally, the question is posed as to how today’s young generation of descendants of immigrants is coming to terms with the history of their ancestors and what consequences this could have for the future identity of Israeli society and its positioning between ‘Occident’ and ‘Orient’.