A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy

by Nathan Thrall

Israel placed the Mizrahim in ma’abarot, densely packed transit camps where they slept in tents. The camps were fenced-in and guarded by police, who prevented the immigrants from leaving. They lacked running water, adequate sanitation, and trained teachers for the children. Israel’s Ashkenazi elite treated the Mizrahim with contempt. Eleven of the twelve ministers in the first Israeli government were Ashkenazi immigrants. At a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proposed building outhouses for the Mizrahim instead of bathrooms. “These people do not know how to make hygienic use of a toilet in the home,” he said. Unemployment rates were high, as was the incidence of tuberculosis, polio, and infant mortality. Thousands of children died. Parents of more than a thousand Mizrahi children accused the government of falsely reporting their babies’ deaths and then secretly handing them to Ashkenazi parents wishing to adopt. They were never allowed to see their children’s bodies, burial sites, or death certificates. Beber was told that a younger sister was stolen at five months old. Decades later, the Health Ministry confirmed some of the accusations in an internal report; Israeli officials had justified the deceit on the grounds that the Mizrahim were “backward” and the abductions were in “the best interests of the children.” Although Ben-Gurion disdained the “primitive Jews” from Arab countries, the Mizrahim were also considered necessary for the success of the Zionis...