Israeli police are investigating a case in which a baby of Arab descent was allegedly sold to an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish family. A new Jewish identity was given to the boy as well as a new name, and he has been studying in Jewish religious schools. In addition to this dramatic case, Israeli police are examining the possibility that additional babies born to Arab mothers have been sold to Jewish families.
Police have arrested a woman suspected of mediating six years ago between an Arab mother from Jaffa to an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish family who had no children. The parents have admitted they had bought the child after efforts to adopt a child through the social welfare department had failed. From the investigation, it emerges the biological mother had sold her son after her Jewish husband was killed in Jordan.
The suspected mediator, a 57-year-old Jewish woman from Bnei Brak, located in central Israel, has been recently arrested for investigation by police. She is suspected of mediating between the Ultra-Orthodox family and the Arab woman from Jaffa, who reportedly arrived in Israel from Jordan seven years ago and wanted to sell her baby.
Meanwhile, a complaint had been received by the social welfare office regarding an attempt to normalize an illegal adoption process of a 6-year-old Jerusalem boy. The investigators reached the parents, arrested them for investigation, in which the parents acknowledged they bought the boy in exchange for 7,000 NIS (equivalent of appx. $1600) through the mediation of a woman from Bnei Brak.
According to them, they had tried to adopt a child through the social welfare department, but with no success, therefore they approached the mediator and asked to buy or adopt a baby through her. The suspected woman told them of an Arab Jordanian woman, who resided in Jaffa, claiming she had been married to a Jew who was killed. The Israeli Arab woman claimed the husband had inherited his wealth to her and the child. According to the investigation, the Arab woman feared for the fate of herself and the baby after one of her husband’s relatives reportedly threatened to kill her; therefore she asked to give the boy up for adoption to an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish family, since she believed such a family could take good care of the boy.
The 2-month old boy was reportedly sold to the Jewish family after an agreement was signed. He was converted to Judaism, but his “dark skin” raised some eye brows among relatives and neighbors with regards to his biological background, so the parents moved with him to Jerusalem from Bnei Brak.
During the investigation, the mediator said she did a “good will because the baby was born to an Arab woman and a Jewish father, so it is appropriate for him to be raised in a Jewish home”.
