Yaffa and David Dayan

Yaffa Dayan is looking for her first born who was kidnapped 4 days after his birth on October 10th 1964, from Daiganie (Zahalon) hospital, Jaffa. From there he was transferred to WIZO, Boulevard David HaMelech, Tel Aviv. If you know/met a man 52 years old that looks like one of his brothers in the pictures below, please contact us. Project “Dayan Brothers Reunion”.

The mother, Yaffa Dayan's, testimony: 'The kidnapping of my first born in 1964'.

Hello, my name is Yaffa Dayan, ID number 026922104, I moved to Israel from Tehran on 1962. In 1964 I married my partner, David Dayan and we stayed in Holon.

On October 10, 1964 I went with my husband to Dajani (Zahalon) hospital in Jaffa and gave birth to my first born at 1 AM, a normal birth with no complications. I gave birth to a healthy baby boy with normal weight, above 2kg.

The baby boy was born beautiful, healthy, with turquoise eyes, light skin with black hair (very similar to my second boy that was born after him named Chezi).

I saw my baby boy only once, in the nursing room, lying in his bed with no need of any clinical machine/device nor was treated by any of the hospital staff.

My breast was full of milk but they didn't let me breastfeed him even once. Each time I wanted to visit my baby boy, my first born, in the baby room, there was a nurse with red hair (I can swear I remember her face and her bad eyes clearly) that blocked my way. She was standing like an officer in the entrance, blocking the entrance with her body so I couldn't get close to my baby boy. She sent me back to my room.

I was very weak and sad when they didn't let me see and breastfeed my son. Other women in the delivery room were permitted to see and breastfeed their kids. One day I cried so much that I fainted because they didn't let me see my kid.

Two days after the birth, my husband and my sister-in-law came to the hospital to see me and my baby boy. When they returned from the baby room they told me how cute, beautiful and healthy he is.

On the fourth day after the birth, my mother came to see me and the baby. When we came to the baby room, they told us he was taken to a place named "WIZO" (38 David HaMelech Boulevard, Tel Aviv, next to Ichilov hospital). I didn't understand why they took my baby to WIZO.

On the fourth day after the birth, my husband went to WIZO, when he got there they didn't open the gate, they yelled at him "go home, you are not allowed to see the baby, he will get infected from you" and they didn't let him in.

On the fifth day after the birth, we went (me and my husband) again to WIZO and again they didn't let us get in and didn't open the gate, again they shouted over the gate "go home, your baby boy is dead"!

My husband shouted to them asking to see the body, as the baby was born healthy. We saw him and he was in good health condition and that is not reasonable. My husband told them that we need to bury him, if they say he died. From WIZO they kept shouting at us to go home, that our baby died and they buried the baby in a common grave.

We returned home crying, depressed and sad, going back home with empty hands.

When we came back home, my mother-in-law insisted that we will go back to WIZO, because it cannot be that we will not get the baby's body. He lived for five days and we need to bury him according to the Jewish tradition.

On the sixth day after the birth my husband and I went again to WIZO, begging and crying for the baby's body. They told us "You are still young and your wife is also young, you will have more babies. No body. We are not allowed to give you the body".

We got neither the birth certificate nor the death certificate.

From that day until today, I keep dreaming of my son every night, of my kid, the one that was supposed to live among his four other brothers. Many questions are raised on the fate of my son, how he looks like today. I have terrible pangs of conscience, why did I believe them and why was I so naïve, believing the hospital staff. Why I didn't insist more.

Every man I see in the street that looks like my kids, I think this is my lost son.

We were new citizens, missing confidence, we hardly knew Hebrew, we were naive and we trusted the hospital staff.

We came to Israel as Zionists with many expectations. We didn't believe Jewish nurses at the hospital can do such horrible things and steal a baby from his mom minutes after his birth. I couldn't believe they will take advantage of us.

After the birth I tried to accept what happened to me. However, 11 years after the birth the TV news reported that “in 1964, 11 babies were stolen and kidnapped from Dajani hospital in Jaffa”.

I will never forget this day. This is the day I realized my baby boy was kidnapped from the hospital. The day after the report, I went to Dajani hospital in Jaffa with my sister, we went to the archive, trying to get more details on the kidnapping of my baby. The secretary knew my sister and promised she will help us and look for information about the birth in all the archive folders. She asked us to return after two weeks and she will give us an answer.

After two weeks with great anticipation, we went again to Dajani hospital. I was shaking all over. The secretary told us "I am sorry to disappoint you but all folders from 1964 were burned and I cannot help you."

Every morning I wake up looking to hear news about my kidnapped son, every year on 10th of October, I celebrate his birthday without him.

Please help me to find my first born.

Yaffa and David Dayan, his parents and his brothers, looking for his return.

there was a nurse with red hair (I can swear I remember her face and her bad eyes clearly) that blocked my way. She was standing like an officer in the entrance, blocking the entrance with her body so I couldn't get close to my baby boy. She sent me back to my room.