Yemeni Jews Torn Whether They Should Leave

After a Yemeni Jews was killed in a grotesque act of violence, American Zionist organizations started a campaign to airlift the remaining Yemeni Jews to Israel.

The effort became a cause celebre. It appeared to be heroic and a moral boaster to Israel. Once again allowing American Zionists and Israel to present the Jewish state as a romantic mission dedicated to protected world Jewry. And so Israel planned to airlift many of the members of the small community of Arabian Jews. All was considered in the airlift except one paramount concern: the views of the Yemeni Jews.

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[Yemeni Jews. Ynet.]

Although there is know an even more concentrated effort to airlift the remaining 300 Jews [from a previous community of 60,000] to Israel, most Yemeni Jews refuse to leave. No one is holding them back but themselves.

The American-Jewish daily Forward recently wrote: "a new report written by on-the-ground observers suggests that one of the primary barriers to the Jews’ departure is the resistance of the Jews themselves."

The report was written by a representative from an American-Jewish organization and an Israeli foreign ministry official. The report cited housing compensation as the primary reason for not leaving.

Yemen is not exactly a booming housing market, so private buyers are scarce. The Yemeni Jews thus want the government to buy their homes if they choose to leave to Israel. The government has agreed to. In principle it think it is absurd to ask the state to use taxpayers money to buy someone's house all because the owner cannot find a private buyers. So, as with much in the Middle East, it comes down to land.

Yemen's Jews can only one so much property. It seems obvious that if Israel wants them to move so badly it should compensate them.

As a final note, the situation of Yemeni Jews is unfortunate. Most of them want to leave if only they could sell their property.

The Jews in Yemen are now nervous, according to the report. Al-Nahari’s murderer, Abdel Aziz Yehia Hamoud al-Abdi, was sentenced to pay a fine, found mentally unstable and then released, leading the Jewish community to complain that he was lightly punished because his victim was a Jew. The Yemeni Jews also complained about threats from Muslim neighbors against themselves and their property.

A UJC spokesman pointed to the threat of violence against the community, stating that the U.S. government had recognized the Jews of Yemen as “a persecuted religious group deserving of refugee status,” and reiterated that the Jews “have demonstrated a clear desire to leave.”

But it remains unclear how many are actually willing to do so.

“Housing compensation is clearly a stumbling block,” said the report, as Jews are demanding that they be compensated for their houses in Raida before leaving. Those who have tried to sell their houses have been unable to do so, apparently because their neighbors believe the houses will soon be abandoned anyway. The Yemeni government has offered to buy the houses, but only after the Jews have settled in Sanaa.

This is unfortunate. Jews have a long history of living in Yemen. But before you blame Arabs and Muslims remember that most was fine until Zionism, brought by Western Jews not Jews from the Middle East, came to the region and stirred by tension between Jews and Arabs. I blame the Zionist state for creating division between the Semitic people. Having said that, just because Israel abuses Palestinians does not mean Jews who have nothing to do with that should not be the butt of punishment. People have to be held accountable for their actions and a Yemeni Muslim who harms a Jews cannot be excused because he can point to Israel.