IN-DEPTH FEATURES

Human Bone Warehouses in Israel : Special Report of Recent Scandal
by Betzalel Kahn

I am writing about one of the worst scandals of stealing human bones to be exposed in Israel in recent years. This outrage carried out by the Antiquities Authority's archaeologists, and the way it was handled by the legal authorities of the State of Israel, raise serious questions as to why the Attorney General of Israel, Elyakim Rubinstein, after being presented with detailed complaints, does not order the police to make a thorough investigation and officially press charges against the heads of the Antiquities Authority.

A number of prominent activists led by R' Avrohom Weitzman of Bnei Brak, and with the aid of a private detective, took part in revealing the particulars of this episode. The following is a summary:

Reports of hundreds of cases full of ancient bones from archaeological digs throughout Israel reached activists engaged in preventing grave desecrations. These bones are stored -- without due respect -- in a carefully guarded storehouse in the cellar of the Medical Faculty of the Tel Aviv University in Ramat Aviv. There is evidence that these bones are subjected to various types of scientific research and witnesses testify that Antiquities Authority's anthropologists visit these cellars often. Chareidi activists put together a special investigative and detective team that kept track of all developments in those cellars, photographed and documented what they saw, and spoke with students and university workers. Much incriminating information was gathered. According to the best estimates, there are more than a thousand ancient skeletons in the university's cellar.

@SUB TITLE = Complaint Filed at Police Headquarters

After verifying the findings, activists of the Federation for the Prevention of Desecration of Graves, together with United Torah Jewry MKs, went to the Dan Area Police Headquarters (the Dan area is the central section of Israel stretching from Tel Aviv to Petach Tikvah) to file an official complaint. R' Meir Neuman, a Torah-observant lawyer, submitted the charges. He accused the Tel Aviv University of having in its possession hundreds of human bones and skeletons that must legally be buried, an act violating the Law of Punishments par. 172 prohibiting desecration of human bones, a criminal offense punishable by three years in prison; and contrary to the directives of the previous Attorney General, Michael Ben Yair, who determined that "human bones are not antiquities."

Immediately after the complaint was officially filed, the activists and public representatives drove to Tel Aviv University to check out this shocking affair personally. To their dismay, the university's gates were blocked by private security guards with the active assistance of the police Central Patrol Unit, barring entrance to any chareidi. After dickering the police allowed only the MKs to enter the university grounds. Even representatives of the Office of Religious Affairs, responsible for burying these bones, were denied admission to the university campus.

After a long wait near the gates, university officials finally arrived. They, however, adamantly refused to allow the MKs entry to the storehouses where the bones are kept. Through the intervention of the Dan Area Police Chief, Deputy Commissioner David Krozah, and other regional police officers, a special meeting with the university's president, Prof. Yoram Dinstein, and the Anatomy Department heads, Prof. Hershkovitz and Lipshitz, was agreed upon. At this meeting too, the top university executives refused to allow entry to the storehouses.

@SUB TITLE = Police Intervention

Only after it was made crystal clear to those present that Torah Jewry would not allow this inhuman situation to continue, and that a prompt solution must be found, did the police resolve that no changes in the storehouses containing the bones would take place until a joint meeting of all involved parties could make decisions concerning this serious problem. A little while later police investigators arrived, documented the findings and transferred 50 cases of bones to the Office of Religious Affairs, leaving some thousands of skeletons and human bones still at the storehouses.

The Dan Area Police Chief, Deputy Commissioner David Krozah, tried to mediate the affair and met with gedolei Yisroel shlita who demanded his immediate intervention. The Police Chief denied trying to avoid a police investigation claiming his desire is to end the whole affair without further involvement and have all the boxes of bones buried. Investigating the episode in depth, he said, would require hundreds of days to document each case. (Some criticized Krozah for even trying to mediate in this incident since that was not his job, and all he was requested to do was to launch a criminal investigation.)

Deputy Commissioner Krozah promised that not even one single case would be removed from the Antiquities Authority's storehouse in Tel Aviv University.

What really happened is that many cases, almost all of them, disappeared during the last three months.

We must point out that ever since then everything has remained the same -- except for one important fact: Last month the storehouses were emptied at an accelerated rate especially after the detailed complaint was filed by the police and the Attorney General.

@SUB TITLE = Tens of Thousands of Skeletons

In recent years, the Antiquity Authority's archaeologists have emptied tens of thousands of graves containing nearly a hundred thousand skeletons and skulls, and totaling millions of human bones. This is a horrible gezeira of chitutei shichvei liable, chas vesholom, to cause tragedies. The activists have in their possession diaries, computerized reports and additional testimony, which describe in detail the location of the graves from which the archaeologists removed the skeletons.

In Yerushalayim itself there are five warehouses containing human bones, besides other storehouses scattered throughout Israel. In Yerushalayim there is one enormous storehouse of 1500 square meters (about 15,000 square feet), with tens of thousands of human bones.

For many months the devoted activists, with a private detective, photocopied and documented the whole sorry situation. All of the photos, including a video film, were taken from the windows of the cellars and storehouses.

R' Avrohom Weitzman, who has been involved in this problem for many years, delivered to Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein and to the police, many findings including photos, video films, and documents. R' Weitzman has not received any official response.

Police officials say that as far as they are concerned they can set up a special investigation squad to investigate this episode thoroughly. The head of the Department for Investigations, Commissioner Yosi Sirvon, is waiting for guidelines from the Attorney General. Elyakim Rubinstein has held back from sending these guidelines, and claims that the police are not prepared to set up a special investigation team.

Rubinstein has flatly refused, many times, to meet with R' Weitzman or other prominent activists. Weitzman has talked for hours on end with Rubinstein's assistant, Kubi Shapira, but to no avail. (On the other hand, the previous assistant to the Attorney General, Noam Solberg (today a judge in the Magistrate's Court of Yerushalayim) was actively involved in the affair, and tried as much as he could to help the activists.)

@SUB TITLE = The List of Skulls

More than a month ago R' Weitzman sent an urgent telegram to the Attorney General. It read as follows: "Since the police are expected to request and receive the opinion of the Attorney General, I want to inform you that I have filed a complaint with the police against Tel Aviv University. I am not prepared to accept any compromises. The ruling that all bones of the dead must be transferred for burial must be fulfilled immediately by the Antiquities Authority and all colleges. The police must document with video cameras all the storehouses. Moreover, police must seize all the computerized material in the Department for Anthropology of the Tel Aviv University, and all computerized material in the possession of Yossi Nagar of the Rockefeller Museum's Anthropological Institute in Yerushalayim should be confiscated. [The police] must determine whether human bones were brought into the storehouses after the directive of Attorney General Yair (that human bones are not antiquities) was issued. I request your special attention in connection with the document I sent to you and to the police about the list of skulls found by Yossi Nagar from the year 1995 and 1996. What Yossi Nagar has done should be considered a transferal of human bones to `permanent storehouses' as he defines them in his diary."

Weitzman writes in his letter that tens of thousands of corpses were involved and they were thrown out of their graves and smashed bones were dispersed in piles of mud and garbage in hundreds of places. "It seems that those people . . . once again deceived all legal authorities with declarations that they delivered for burial all the bones of the dead, while instead they secretly transferred the bones of tens of thousands of the dead to secret storehouses of student dormitories in universities throughout Israel and to other places. This would never have been revealed if we had not decided to employ a private detective."

@SUB TITLE = Criminal Scandal

The letter was sent more than a month ago but nothing was done about it -- at least as far as is known to the activists involved in this affair. The Attorney General has not yet instructed the police to open an official investigation. The archaeologists have meanwhile moved the bones to hidden locations, a fact which will naturally hamper any future investigation. The Attorney General has resolutely and consistently refused to meet R' Weitzman or other eminent activists to hear additional information.

@SUB TITLE = The Test of Time

Is this not considered obstructing an investigation? Were those archaeologists and university heads involved in the stacking up of human bones in the storehouses informed by the Attorney General's office or the Police Department about the submitted complaint and the investigation that should be underway? Is the Attorney General or the Police Department delaying an investigation so that any evidence in the storehouses can be removed?

Rubinstein claims that his assistant contacted the General Manager of the Antiquities Authority, Amir Drori, and the Tel Aviv University Rector, Prof. Nili Cohen, and asked them to clarify whether there are human bones in their possession. It seems that the Attorney General believes those involved in this affair -- the Antiquities Authority, Tel Aviv University, and other interested parties -- more than the conclusive photographic proofs. Why? We do not know.

Rubinstein shows in his reply that he is trying to avoid a criminal investigation despite the clear findings. He thinks that a "solution in a peaceful manner, as was achieved in the Tel Aviv University, is the proper way to solve such topics."

@SUB TITLE = Secret Laboratory

The directive of the previous Attorney General, Michael Ben Yair, is worth reviewing. He ruled that "human bones are not antiquities." The implication in Ben Yair's legal opinion is that the moment bones are revealed they should be handed over for burial to the Office of Religious Affairs. However, the pictures are irrefutable evidence that this is not being carried out in practice.

The warehouses are unquestionably illegal. The Antiquities Authority, to forestall the legal issues, shipped a thousand (!) cases of bones to the Office of Religious Affairs a few days after Ben Yair's directive was announced. As this investigation showed, tens of thousands of cases still languish in the storehouses.

@SUB TITLE = Waiting for Instructions

In fact, the anthropological laboratory of the Antiquities Authority was supposed to close up shop immediately after Ben Yair's directive was announced. However, the laboratory was merely moved to another location.

The activists say that it appears that Rubinstein is not moved by the terrifying fact that an enormous amount of human bones are stored away in boxes instead of being brought for burial. "We are talking about immense storehouses that are against the directives," one of the activists said. "I would not be surprised if Rubinstein would issue a directive that this topic is not under police jurisdiction. The obvious question is: The previous Attorney General, Ben Yair, publicized an unambiguous legal opinion. Why has Rubinstein not directed transferring the dead to burial and opening an investigation?" he argues.

@SUB TITLE = Intentional Leak of Information?

An activist said: "The private detective and I were in Yerushalayim following what was happening in the big storehouse of some 1500 square meters. For a long time we took pictures outside the building, but little by little over the last few weeks we began to see that there is not much left to photograph. The storehouses were emptied out. It seems that the archaeologists noticed that they were watched and it is possible that the video films will not be relevant anymore."

How was this leaked out to the archaeologists?

Information has reached Yated Ne'eman about what one of the Attorney General's assistants told a recognized personality in the Torah World. The assistant claimed he had ordered various universities throughout the country to return the cases to the Office of Religious Affairs so that they could be buried. Is it not possible that because of these talks the university heads understood that the Attorney General is heading for a police investigation?

@SUB TITLE = The Archaeologists Continue in Their Work

Meanwhile the archaeologists are continuing as if nothing had happened. Every few days news articles are published in the Hebrew daily Yated Ne'eman about archaeological diggings by the Antiquities Authority workers who destroy ancient graves in various places throughout the land.

It is of course proper that Torah-loyal Jewry who believe in the resurrection of the dead will bitterly protest against this gezeira of chitutei shichvei and against the outrageous desecration of millions of bones of our forefathers that have either been thrown away or disgraced in the cellars of the Antiquities Authority for anthropological tests.

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Rabbi Ravitz: Rubinstein is guilty of interfering with the investigation.

Rabbi Gafni: This is how a country based on law is run?

Rabbi Porush: Rubinstein has not done anything about the whole affair.

The former Head of the Knesset Financial Committee, MK Rabbi Avrohom Ravitz: "In light of the investigative article's findings the Attorney General, Elyakim Rubinstein is guilty of obstructing an investigation. They are making a farce of the law and are playing with the laws as they wish. They always ask us to honor the country's laws, but they themselves toy with them as they wish. When they are interested in protecting white-collar criminals they `twist' all laws, defend the criminals, and reveal suspicions against them. This is as serious as can be."

The former Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing, Rabbi Meir Porush: "At first glance it seems we are dealing with grave findings that require a thorough inquiry. For many years I have claimed that the Antiquities Authority has been converted from an authority whose responsibility is to protect and preserve the glorious past of the Jewish Nation in its land, to a company for the removal of dead from their graves. The man standing at the head of the authority holds in his hands power that almost no other person in the State of Israel has except for the Attorney General.

"I expect and even demand from the Attorney General to bring the criminals to justice with the same determination that characterizes him in his attitude to "the foundations of the law" and those who offend it in any way. I am astonished that the Attorney General has not done anything about the whole affair, and I very much hope he has a logical and true explanation to help us understand why he is following such a course."

The General Director of Degel HaTorah and MK, Rabbi Moshe Gafni: "Possessing bones is absolutely against the law. We have throughout the years known that bones are being held [and not brought to burial]. Throughout the confrontations I have had with Amir Drori, he has claimed many times that they do not possess bones.

"It seems that even today they are continuing to retain bones. When people so blatantly commit offenses, the job of the Attorney General is to immediately rule that the bones be buried and the offenders brought to justice. This is exactly what he does in simpler cases. We are under the impression that there are two types of laws that the Attorney General and law enforcement authorities take care of: Laws having some linkage to religious matters that they take care of, if at all, in a minor fashion and the offenders are not indicted. On the other hand, other offenses are treated stringently.

"This story places a large question mark on the definition of the State of Israel as being a democratic egalitarian country governed by law. Today this can happen with religious issues that are not enforced and tomorrow it can happen with other matters that the government does not like. I am requesting Mr. Rubinstein to act stringently against the offenders and bring all of the bones to immediate burial."

The Antiquities Authority demanded that Rabbi Meir Porush retract what he had said. "Rabbi Porush accused the Antiquities Authority of plotting day and night to gain access to human bones, and called for an all-out war against the Antiquities Authority. What he said involved an implied threat against Antiquities Authority workers." (Note that Rabbi Porush never said this.)

The Antiquities Authority furthermore announced that "the Authority warns that the incitement appearing frequently in chareidi media in the names of Knesset members of the chareidi sector has gone way too far. The Authority is weighing the possibility of filing a libel and defamation suit against the spokesmen and those who publish what they have said, if the policy of incitement and lies aimed at the Antiquities Authority does not immediately stop."

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Rubinstein: The issue is being discussed by the State Prosecutor's office

The Attorney General, Elyakim Rubinstein, furnished the following response: "Complaints were submitted to Israeli Police about the possession of human bones in various storehouses throughout Israel. The Police Department has recently conveyed their opinion in connection with these complaints to the Attorney General. The report that police officials are prepared to set up a special investigation team to examine the issue is far from depicting reality and is unreliable. The Attorney General and the State Prosecutor are examining the Police Department's opinion and are forming their stand in this matter.

"We have no knowledge of bones being transferred from various storehouses. Yaakov Shapira, a lawyer and Chief Assistant to the Attorney General, asked Mr. Amir Drori, the head of the Antiquities Authority and Prof. Nili Cohen, the Rector of Tel Aviv University, to verify whether human bones are in their possession. Mr. Drori replied that the Antiquities Authority meticulously obeys the law including the directives of the Attorney General. Immediately after the directives of the Attorney General were issued in 1994 the Antiquities Authority delivered for re-burial human bones uncovered during diggings which were in its possession at that time, except for a limited amount of human bones that were mostly from the prehistoric period, and were all bones of non-Jews, idol worshipers and prior to them.

"Mr. Drori pointed out that the limited collection of scientific importance was transferred to the Anatomical and Anthropological Department of Tel Aviv University.

"Leah Cagen, a lawyer and Assistant Law Advisor of Tel Aviv University, replied in the name of the university's rector, that with the assistance of the police and with the knowledge of representatives of the Office of Religious Affairs, representatives of Tel Aviv University, and representatives of Mr. Neuman, who had submitted the complaint, they began negotiating with the aim of arriving at an understanding and agreement. After a number of meetings an agreement in principle was reached to bury the human bones found in the university. Leah Cagen pointed out that Mr. Neuman told her that gedolei Torah are partners to the agreement that was reached. In light of the agreement, Mr. Neuman requested that the police suspend this complaint. Leah Cagen furthermore pointed out that she had sent the letter of Mr. Weitzman addressed to the Attorney General, to Mr. Neuman. This letter seems to be the source of your questions. Mr. Neuman replied that the letter does not express the stand of the gedolei Torah who sent him. Mr. Shalom Fried, the representative of the Office of Religious Affairs, told Mr. Yaakov Shapira, assistant Attorney General, that in light of the negotiations he entered Tel Aviv University and removed cases of bones and buried them.

"The Attorney General thinks that a solution to the matter in a peaceful manner, similar to that accomplished in Tel Aviv University is a fitting way to solve such issues. Moreover, as mentioned, the issue is now being discussed in the State Prosecutor's office together with the Office of the General Attorney. We hope that what you publish will express what is written above without any one-sided stand as appears from [your] questions. We hope that what you publish will express the reality as it actually is and will meet with the requirements of the Chofetz Chaim in his book Shemiras Haloshon."

Rabbi Avrohom Weitzman replies to the Attorney General: "The complaints to the police were submitted at various places in Israel. We should differentiate between the complaint issued against the university and the complaint issued about other storehouses. As far as the university is concerned the complaint was submitted separately together with MKs and by sheer surprise. The police were caught by surprise about the issue and immediately entered the storehouse and photographed all of its contents with a video camera. In other places where the MKs were involved, the police received the video cassette and examined the matter for a long time. The police said that they want to plan seizing the storehouses in the best and most efficient way possible. Immediately after Pesach, instead of efficient action, the file was transferred to the head of the Investigation Division of the Police Department. It seems that certain parties preferred the enormous amount of bones from the dead to be transferred to the Office of Religious Affairs without police intervention.

"The Attorney General was informed that the bones were transferred, and the video he received from us is today different from what the situation was then. Mr. Shapira says that he talked to Amir Drori. This is strange. The complaint was submitted to the Police Department and they understood we are dealing with secret storehouses, and this was secret since they knew that what they were doing is forbidden and therefore returned what they returned to the Office of Religious Affairs. If there were secret storehouses and the Attorney General understood that what was done was a fraud, why did he not instruct the police immediately to seize the storehouses and investigate all those involved in this episode? Why was this investigation stalled for two months and the Attorney General himself talked to the involved parties?

"Not only Mr. Neuman submitted a complaint, I too submitted a complaint and he does not represent me, and I even told the police that I disagree with others involved in this episode. The police told gedolei Torah they are prepared to give more cases [of bones] if we retract the complaint. If they are prepared to do this that means there are still thousands of cases."

In reference to what the Attorney General said that he has the agreement of gedolei Torah shlita Rabbi Avrohom Weitzman relies: "What Rubinstein said is far from the truth. Until this very moment gedolei Torah have not agreed to anything and they do not know of any agreement. The Attorney General bases what he has said on a draft that Leah Cagen, from Tel Aviv University sent a few days ago about setting up a committee to solve this affair. The Rabbonim have not yet seen the draft. The entire basis of the draft is that if Mr. Neuman, Esq., will agree to sign a document of agreement we will retract our complaint. To this they did not consent."

Police: We are waiting for guidelines from the Attorney General.

Police Spokesman, Deputy Commissioner Uzi Sanduri says: "We received the material to be investigated from the Attorney General and the moment we receive the proper instructions we will take care of it."