Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, semen samples of 39 men – 32 soldiers and seven civilians killed or murdered – have been extracted at the request of families, wives or partners who want to produce their progeny. In three other requests, the semen wasn’t removed due to the time limit that can be usefully taken after death.

On Wednesday, the Knesset Health Committee discussed the issue including preparation for the first reading of the Semen-Extraction Law. Acting chairman of the committee and one of the initiators of the law, Likud MK Keti Shitrit, said: The law – unique in the world – raises many controversies and questions, but it deals with important and sensitive issues that touch the hearts of all Israeli citizens and especially the bereaved families. In the discussion it became clear that there is no clear definition in the law for a “permanent partner.”  

MK Merav Ben-Ari (Yesh Atid), also one of the initiators, added the need to balance the position of the spouse or partner with that of the parents when there is a disagreement between them. The committee's legal advisor, Noa Ben-Shabat, said that the term the need to define the term “partner” if the woman was not married to the deceased.

Bureaucratic backlog

Bela Savitsky, the mother of Yonatan who fell in the battle at the Kissufim outpost, said that she was informed of her son’s death only about two days later and that the semen extraction was carried out after another day “due to bureaucratic procrastination.” She demanded that the possibility of semen extraction to be raised by the IDF and decided by soldiers when they were recruited and that when a soldier was killed, semen should be extracted immediately without the parents giving their consent. Noga Shieldhouse, a Defense Ministry lawyer, said that the ministry opposes a different wording for civilians and soldiers. 

Michael Fouah, CEO of the organization Choosing the Family, warned that the wording of the proposed law would allow the spouse, or whoever claims to have been the soldier’s partner, complete control over the process – and that the deceased’s parents have no say, without even having been informed about it.

Rabbi Lior Segev from the Puah Institute, stressed the importance of every soldier signing a will regarding such a decision so that there not be a situation in which automatic semen removal be the default. 

Former MK Zvika Hauser, another initiator of the law, warned against mistakes in the law’s application because the system has “dragged its feet” so far. “Only about 10% of the fallen had expressed their desire for semen extraction, and in my estimation, the remaining 90% simply did not know about the possibility. The Israel Defense Forces shirks, avoids and runs away from its responsibility in the matter”.

Major Chen Shamlo, a legal advisor from the IDF’s casualty division, claimed that there is a structured procedure in which a casualty officer informs the family of the possibility of semen extraction, but bereaved families said this was not true, and claimed that the casualty officer did not inform them about this and even tried to discourage them when they brought it up.