Re: Israeli Court Rejects MIA Exhumation Request

Date: March 25, 2004

"March 25, 2004 Nisan 3, 5764

Court rejects request to exhume bodies of navy MIAs

By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent

The High Court of Justice on Thursday rejected a petition by the family of an Israel Defense Forces soldier who was killed in 1967 while serving on the Israel Navy Ship (INS) Eilat and was subsequently declared missing in action.

The family of Petty Officer Third Class Menachem Cohen requested that a plot at the Haifa military cemetery, which contains the bodies of three unidentified soldiers, be opened and the bodies exhumed so that authorities can determine if Cohen is in fact buried there.

The court ruled that it could not interfere with the security authorities’ decision to deny the family’s request.

The INS Eilat was hit by missiles fired at it from Egyptian vessels during a battle off the coast of Sinai in October 1967. Some 47 crewmembers had been killed and 16 were pronounced missing in action as a result of the battle. Three bodies of crewmembers were never identified, two of which were returned by the Egyptians ten days after the battle.

The three bodies were buried in separate coffins in a plot reserved for the 16 unknown soldiers of the INS Eilat at Haifa’s military cemetery. The plot has a headstone with the names of the 16.

Cohen’s family petitioned the High Court three years ago, demanding that the bodies be exhumed and be genetically tested. The petition was filed against the defense minister, the IDF’s Head of Personnel Directorate and the families of the rest of the missing soldiers of INS Eilat, who were all opposed to opening the plot. The IDF’s decision in 1999 not to exhume the bodies stemmed from the objection by the other families.

“The issue raises complex moral, social and human dilemmas, and involves deep, charged emotions, wrote former justice Theodor Or in his decision. “It has been over 36 years that the petitioners have trodden on the heroic path to locate the body of their loved one. We have heard Menachem Cohen’s father’s emotional request to know where exactly his son is buried. Who could hear this basic human request and remain indifferent? Still, we could not, unfortunately, grant the petitioners their request.”

Justice Yaakov Tirkel wrote “the pain of one family cannot be alleviated by laying a burden on other families.”

©2004 Haaretz"