Testimony of Menachem Ozeri, Zecharia and Sa'ada's son.

My parents, Zecharia and Sa'ada Ozeri, immigrated to Israel in 1944 from the city of Hessier in Yemen.

From the Jaffa port they were transferred to immigrant camps in Ramat Hasharon, and shortly after to the Kfar Nahman immigrant camp in Ra'anana.

We were 12 brothers and sisters, including Shifra who disappeared and Yosef who died in an accident when he was about six years old. We are now 10, and I am the third child. Yosef's accident happened when he was on a cart transporting oil for heating; he was injured and taken to the Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba. This was in the early 1950s. I also have doubts about Yosef's death, because I don't remember the shiva and I don't remember mourning him. There's still something very vague around it. My parents didn't talk at all about his death, to prevent an emotional overload on the family, but I also don't remember anything about his death, except that he was injured, taken to the hospital and we were told he was dead. There's also nothing clear cut as to the grave. There are two different records as to the specific lot in the cemetery, and our family has a different record than the one registered with the Chevra Kadisha [Jewish Burial Society].

A few years later, in 1958, my mother had a baby girl at Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba. A healthy baby, that my parents named Shifra. I remember walking hand in hand with my father to the hospital to visit my mother and the baby girl. It was a Saturday. We weren't allowed in, and only after my father pleaded with them, they let us in. When we came in, my mother told my father that they said the baby girl had passed away. We don't believe it and as far as we're concerned, it's a lie. The hospital didn't show the body to my parents nor told them – to this day – where she was buried. I remember walking home with my father to Pertez neighborhood in Ra'anana, and all the way my father was very sad and cried bitterly.

From then on, until a few years before they died, my parents didn't talk about Yosef and Shifra. They didn't want to mentally burden the other children. Still, I was very close to my parents, especially my mother, and before she passed away she told me the whole story, that I already knew for many years.

I have been studying this affair in every possible manner for many years now. I was in contact with anyone possible, including Member of Knesset Nurit Koren and others, in Israel and abroad.

This has had a very big impact on my mental state and on my entire life. In 1968, I left for the United States. Over the years I spent some time in Israel, and now I am back in the United States. Sometimes I think there is a reason that I didn't have children or a family. I was deeply hurt by what happened to us, to our family, and also, personally, by the state's conduct towards me in everything related to banks and authorities. I completely lost trust. I feel that it has haunted me emotionally all these years.

I think this horrifying affair of child abduction should be heard abroad, outside Israel. I, personally, want to sue the state in The Hague. All the actions within Israel are not enough, and there are still lies and cover-ups. I think we need to take more significant steps.