Dr. Mateh (Atiyah) Margalit is one of the senior doctors suspected of having participated in baby trafficking. She worked at Beter, a private maternity hospital in Haifa, and ran it from 1968 to 1995, after Dr. Beter, the hospital founder, died. Dr. Mateh died in 2005. She was not the only suspect: Two reports by Carmela Menashe on TV Channel 1 included testimonies by a nurse and a midwife (nurse Suzi Miller in photo) who attested to baby trafficking having taken place at the hospital under management direction. The midwife reported that the staff received a directive to hide the newborn: “After the mothers gave birth, we would cover the baby so that the mother will not be able to see it…” (see video). To date, two women testified to having given birth to living babies at the hospital, but subsequently being told that their babies were dead: The mothers of Gil Greenbaum (1954) and Dudu Dahan (1969). In both cases, of course, the adoption papers were of course not signed by the biological mothers. Dudu Dahan’s mother precisely remembers Dr. Margalit as the person who rejected her request to see her baby, as does the nurse interviewed in the TV report.

The Israeli adoption services refused to assist Gil or Dudu Dahan in their search for their mothers– both men found their biological mothers thanks to their own extraordinary resourcefulness.

The formal Investigation Committee never interrogated the hospital’s personnel, nor did the police.