This morning (Tuesday), ZAKA Tel Aviv volunteers, in the presence of Director General Zvi Hasid, together with members of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, opened the grave of the toddler Saadia Karni in the old Ben Zion cemetery in Netanya, in accordance with a court order under the Law for the Study of the Disappearance of Children from Yemen, the East and the Balkans.
Representatives of the family were present throughout the opening of the grave, including former MK Nurit Koren, representatives of the Ministry of Health and representatives of the State Prosecutor's Office. The grave was opened at the request of Saadia Karni's family to find out whether she was indeed buried there.
The grave of Saada Karni, one of the children of the Yemenite abductees, photo: ZAKA Tel Aviv Spokesperson's Office
The Karni family arrived from Yemen in 1949, Avraham Karni, the father of the family, and his two wives: Shulamit (Salma) Karni and her daughters, 16-year-old Yona, and her sons, who later died young. His second wife, Esther, and her two children, Saada, 3, and a friend of about eight months.
Abducted from tent without parents' knowledge
The family was housed in the Beit Lid camp in two separate tents. Esther was cooking in one tent, and in the adjacent tent, Yona, she looked after the children. A nurse came into the tent with the children and asked to take daughter Saada and son Yafriend for general examinations at the clinic in the transit camp. The children were forcibly taken from Jonah, who did not give up and accompanied the nurse to the clinic, where the medical staff decided to leave them.
The grave of one of the children of the Yemenite abductees opened (archive) | Shmuel Buchris
Jonah returned to the tent and informed the parents that the children had been taken to the clinic. The frightened parents immediately went to retrieve the children, the staff refused and acted as if the children were their private property, but they allowed the mother to come to breastfeed the toddler. Sister Jonah would also visit them and play with them every day.
A few days later, when Esther arrived to breastfeed the toddlers together with Yona, the clinic staff informed them that Saada and a friend had died and were buried, even though every time they visited the children, they seemed to be safe and sound.
Opening Saada Karni's grave following a court order,
Esther panicked. She went wild and refused to believe that the children had died. Jonah wanted to call her father, who had also come to the clinic, and asked for his two small children. The parents, who refused to believe that the children had died, stayed there for several days and refused to leave the clinic.
The son friend was returned despite the insistence of the authorities
The clinic staff surrendered and returned my little friend to the father, despite their insistence, that he died and was buried. The return of their son Yadid to the parents proved to them that their daughter Saada is healthy and alive.
Esther and Avraham Karni made every effort to know what had happened to Saada until the day they died. Sisters Yona and Shoshana complained about the disappearance of their sister Saada to the Shalgi Committee and also to the Cohen Kedmi Committee. The commission of inquiry determined that Saada died and was buried in the Netanya cemetery at the age of five.
Opening the grave of Saada Karni z"l from the affair of the abducted Yemenite children, photo: ZAKA Spokesperson's Office Tel Aviv
Representatives of the family have noted many times that this claim is very puzzling because the toddler disappeared when she was three years old. The cause of death was also puzzling. According to the commission, Saada died as a result of malaria and muscular dystrophy, after an illness that lasted two years. The family claimed that if the information had been correct, they would have been able to see the girl during those two years.
"The allegations are inconsistent with the facts"
Another question raised by family members relates to the death certificate presented by the committee. The certificate listed Saadia Avraham - a 5-year-old boy and there is no ID number. In addition, Saada stayed at the clinic in Beit Lid with the whole family, so why was she buried in Netanya? Children from Bayit Lid camp were buried in the cemetery in Ein Shemer.
The family's lawyers further noted that "this unclear state of health is inconsistent with the fact that daughter Yona testifies to a daily visit to the nursery, and saw her sister Saada there – safe and sound."
The grave plot of the toddler Saada Karni, one of the children in the Yemenite abduction affair, photo: ZAKA Tel Aviv Spokesperson's Office
Against the background of these many puzzlements, it was decided that Saada's grave would be opened in order to check who was really buried in the grave and whether it was Saada or another child.
It should be noted that the opening of Saada's grave and the exhumation of her skeletal remains occurred after 1997, at the initiative of attorney Rami Tsubari, 10 graves were opened by the Institute of Forensic Medicine in which 22 skeletal remains were found. An analysis of the DNA tests at the time did not find a family affiliation between the skeletal remains and the families represented by attorney Rami Tsubari.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us