The tomb of baby Uziel Khoury, who was buried in the 1950s and whose name was linked in the Yemeni children's affair, was opened this morning (Monday) in the Sgula cemetery in Petah Tikva, for the purpose of DNA testing.
His sister Chaya, who came to the cemetery, said her mother did not forgive her father for her little brother being taken.
"There are four or five versions of what happened to him, each time we were told something different. We knew nothing. They showed my father a package from a distance and told him they would bury him and take care of everything," she said.
"It's not easy. All their lives my parents did not keep quiet and rest because of it. They always fought over this child."
Haya further said that she "wants to believe that the state, as soon as it has made the decision to open the tomb, will tell us the truth. We are here because of all the contradictions."
Opening of the tomb of Emanuel Khoury, the affair of the children of Yemen, this morning, Photo: Yossi Zeliger
The opening of Khoury's grave comes after the Family Court in the Krayot finally finally approved the opening of Khoury's grave.
The decision was made at the request of Mazal Barko, the family sister, who since 2018 has been fighting in the courts in Israel for the right to open the grave in order to find out whether her brother is buried there.
At the opening of the tomb, three cameras will be placed to monitor what is happening, at the request of the family.
One camera will aim at the head of the tomb opener, and the other two cameras will monitor and photograph what is happening from several angles.
It should be noted that the state objected to the fact that the cameras would broadcast aloud and live what was happening at the place to the child's family, but the court granted this request.
At a hearing last week on the affair, the legal representative of the Ministry of Health stated that the ministry rejects the draft report of Prof. Itamar Grotto on the affair and adopts the criticism of the draft of Prof. Schwartz - a medical history researcher who completely denied his findings The families.
Earlier, at the hearing, committee chairman Idit Silman attacked the fact that there were no government representatives or CEOs at the hearing, noting that "it is convenient for everyone who shouts here without them and they will move on."
She added that "this is a turnaround. It is also amazing that the Ministry of Health does not apologize for the past injustices of the disappearance of the children."
Opening of the tomb of Emanuel Khoury, the affair of the children of Yemen, this morning, Photo: Yossi Zeliger
In January 2018, the State Attorney's Office issued a notice to the Family Court in Petah Tikva, according to which it agrees to the request of 17 Yemeni families to issue orders to open graves and perform genetic tests for family ties between them and the remains of the bodies in the graves.
In October 2021, the Supreme Court ordered the then ombudsman, Dr. Avichai Mandelblit, to allow the opening of a grave in the Petah Tikva cemetery, and to examine whether the baby Uziel Khoury was indeed buried there about seventy years ago.
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