Herzog: "Shin Bet is involved in the search for Haymanot Kasau"
The President of the State told the Kasau family members that the head of the Shin Bet updated him that the organization recently entered the picture "with full force" following a request from the police. The father of the girl who has been missing for two and a half years: "We demanded that they intervene as soon as possible."
The President of the State, Isaac Herzog, said this afternoon (Tuesday) to the family of Haymanot Kasau that the Shin Bet is involved in the search for her — about two weeks after her parents appealed to the head of the Shin Bet, David Zini, with a request to intervene.
According to the President's statement:
"I spoke with the head of the Shin Bet, David Zini, and he confirmed to me that the Shin Bet entered the picture following a recent request from the Israel Police. The Shin Bet is involved in the case and has entered with full force to contribute in any way to the location of Haymanot. I thank the Israel Police, who are making a tremendous effort together with the Shin Bet, and I hope we will receive good news."
In a statement from Herzog's office, it was reported that Haymanot's father, Tesfaye Kasau, said at the meeting: "We have made every effort and met with the relevant authorities. We demand the intervention of the Shin Bet as soon as possible. We fear that there is difficulty and discrimination due to language gaps or skin color." Yaros Kasau, Haymanot's sister, said: "We do not deserve to go through what we are going through. Haymanot disappeared during a time of war, and we know that if the Shin Bet enters the picture, it will be the end of our suffering. My family deserves to be happy and to hug her again. I am a young woman of 20, and I want to start living my life. Since 11th grade, instead of living like girls my age, I have been dealing only with searches and the struggle for my sister. Haymanot is a little girl, and we do not know what she is going through."
Herzog told the family: "Haymanot is the child of the entire nation of Israel, and the entire nation of Israel is very worried about her. The State of Israel is making a great effort to locate Haymanot with all the tools at its disposal. This is at the top of the priorities of the law enforcement agencies." Tesfaye Bishau, who accompanies the family, told the President: "I hope we will celebrate Haymanot's Bat Mitzvah already at home, together with the family here in Jerusalem. The news that the President gave us today is very important to us. We believe and are optimistic that Haymanot is alive and she needs to return to her home."
As mentioned, about two weeks ago, marking 900 days since Haymanot's disappearance from her home in Safed, her family demonstrated near the Shin Bet headquarters in Tel Aviv and demanded from the head of the service, David Zini, the organization's intervention. Haymanot's father, Tesfaye Kasau, appealed in a letter to Zini: "A 9-year-old girl does not just disappear, the Shin Bet should already be involved." Haymanot disappeared from the absorption center in Safed in February 2024 when she was nine years old. Last February, the Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara transferred her approval to the government to integrate the Shin Bet into the searches.
The father, Tesfaye, said that "the very fact that Haymanot was taken from a public institution of the Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration is sufficient grounds for the Shin Bet to enter the picture. This is an injury to the essence of the state." Regarding a meeting he held with Benjamin Netanyahu, he said: "He told us that he would check the matter and return to us with an answer. Since then, we have not heard from him." He also criticized the conduct of the police: "I don't even know where things stand today. At Lahav 443, they don't answer my phone calls. In the police in Safed, they didn't do what they should have done."
