Hanegbi calls to declassify documents on kidnapped Yemenite children
The minister responsible for investigating the classified documents has asked the Shin Bet and Mossad heads to clear them for publishing on a publicly accessible website.
Minister without Portfolio Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud), responsible for investigating the classified parts of the minutes regarding the kidnapping of Yemenite children, has asked the heads of the Shin Bet and Mossad declassify the testimony of former Shin Bet chief Amos Manor. Manor headed the security body from 1953 to 1963.
Hanegbi saw the requested minutes that were kept behind closed doors from 1995 to 2001. Hanegbi then asked for assistance from Shin Bet chief Nadaz Argaman and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen in determining the involvement of their two agencies in the matter, which took place at the foundation of the state of Israel.
Hanegbi's position is that the Mossad and Shin Bet have no right to keep this evidence and testimony secret, but he wanted to get the positions of the directors and their recommendations.
The minister is expected to recommend that the government declassify the minutes documenting the disappearances of the Yemenite children, barring those that are subject to adoption privacy laws.
He is also expected to recommend that a special webpage be set up where the entirety of the minutes can be read by the public.
Hanegbi's appointment to the position came as a result of public pressure and families' claim that previous governments have conspired to whitewash the reports of different investigations into the matter.
Hanegbi visited the State Archives with State Archivist Dr. Yaakov Lezubik, director of the Ministry of Justice's Freedom of Information Unit Rivkie Dvash, and legal counsel to the State Archives Naomi Aldouby. The visit took place for Hanegbi to determine the procedures for the relevant committee to examine the material.
Hundreds of containers containing more than a million and a half sheets of testimonies, transcripts, documents, minutes, and data from hospitals, the Ministry of the Interior, a burial society, the Ministry of Health, and other sources were sent on Hanegbi's instructions for digital scanning so they can be centralized on a website open to the public.
