Yemen halts funding for Jews in Sana'a compound

Yemenite Jews arriving at Ben Gurion airport

Update: This Arutz Sheva article claims that 60 Yemenite Jews have been airlifted to Israel via Qatar.

This slightly confused Times of Israel report presumably refers to the 56 (not 100) Jews living to-date at government expense in a gated Sana'a residential compound after they were forced to flee Houthi tribes in Raida, north Yemen in 2007. If the government is no longer prepared to support these Jews, one can foresee that rabbi Yahya Yusef and his flock will have no alternative but to join the 50 who have already left for Israel. There are still just over 100 other Jews in Raida, but they too will leave once they have sold their homes. (With thanks: Lily)

The Yemeni government has cut off funding for the remaining 100-odd members of the country’s ancient and internally displaced Jewish community, a Sanaa-based NGO said on Saturday.

According to the Sawa’a Organization for Anti-Discrimination, Yemen has halted housing and basic services allocations for Jews, a move the organization called “unfortunate and unacceptable.”

Sawa’a demanded that the “National Reconciliation Government… restore these allocations again, [and] provide [Jews] with housing and safe living, as they are considered to be war-displaced.”

Most of the remaining Jews in Yemen now live in a guarded compound in Sanaa after they were driven from their homes in Saada by al-Qaeda-aligned anti-government forces in 2007. According to Sawa’a, media access to the compound is restricted, and, in October, several Sawa’a staff members were arrested during an attempted visit.

“The return of Jews to Saada currently is not possible,” as such a move would entail “a direct threat to their lives, their safety and security,” the organization said.

Sawa’a, in conjunction with current community rabbi Yahya Yusuf, was working to restore Jewish property lost to the al-Qaeda insurgents, Israel Radio reported Sunday.

In December, Sawa’a protested the exclusion of the Yemeni Jewish community from a national conference that was meant to promote dialogue between various groups in the civil war-torn country. At the time, it was reported that the organization had issued a report documenting the discrimination against the country’s Jews, including their political disenfranchisement and lack of access to jobs and education.

Read article in full 

Jerusalem Post article 

Useful run-down in the Yemen Post