Yemen – Yemeni Rebels Hold Jew Over Smuggling Out Old Torah Scroll

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    FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks at an 800 hundred years old torah scroll as he meets with Yemenite jews who were brought to Israel earlier this morning as part of a secret rescue operation, at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, March 21, 2016. Photo by Haim Zach/GPOYemen – A member of Yemen’s Jewish minority has been detained over allegations he helped smuggle an 800-year-old scroll out of the country to Israel, Yemeni officials said Tuesday, weeks after some of Yemen’s last remaining Jews arrived in Israel following a clandestine operation.

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    Yahia Youssef Yaish was being interrogated by the intelligence service run by Shiite Houthi rebels, who control the country’s capital, Sanaa, the officials said.

    It wasn’t immediately clear when exactly Yaish was arrested as the officials only said he was taken from his house last week. Three airport employees were also detained, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

    Yemeni intellectuals issued a statement demanding Yaish’s release and describing the allegations against him as “fabricated.”

    In Israel, Avi Mayer, the spokesman for the Jewish Agency, confirmed the Torah scroll was smuggled out of Yemen with a rabbi and 18 Yemeni Jews who left to Israel last month. The rabbi, Saliman Dahari, said the Torah scroll he brought was handed down over the generations.

    “The notion that the Torah should have remained in a country torn apart by a violent civil war, several of the parties to which are openly anti-Semitic, is preposterous,” said Mayer. “The Torah served members of the Raydah Jewish community for centuries and will continue to do so in Israel, where the last remnants of that community now live,” he added.

    On Yaish, he said the agency is aware of the reports of his detention and is monitoring the situation.

    Since 1949, some 50,000 Jews have arrived to Israel from Yemen and have grown to become an integral part of Israeli society. Mayer said that there is an estimated number of 50 Jews remaining in Yemen, where they dwell in a closed compound next to the U.S. Embassy.

    They are often subject to attacks by both Sunni and Shiite Muslim militants, he added.

    The conflict in Yemen has been ripped the country apart. The rebel Houthis overran Sanaa in September 2014, forcing the internationally-recognized government into exile in Saudi Arabia. Since last year, the Saudis have led a coalition of mostly Sunni Arab countries in an intensive air campaign against the Houthis.

    Mansour Hayel, who was among those who signed the petition, said he believed the Houthis “never cared about manuscripts” and that Yaish “was only taken as a scapegoat after the Houthis felt embarrassed when Israelis showed the scroll on TV.”

    Hayel said that over the years, Houthis destroyed ancient manuscripts and scrolls when they forced the Jewish community in the northern city of Saada — a Houthi stronghold— to flee to Sanaa.


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    4 Comments
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    Normal
    Normal
    7 years ago

    Yeah, the Muslims really want or need a Sefer Torah.

    Normal
    Normal
    7 years ago

    From Wiki “
    In August 2012, Aharon Zindani, a Jewish community leader from Sana’a, was stabbed to death in a market in an antisemitic attack. Subsequently, his wife and five children emigrated to Israel, and took his body with them for burial in Israel, with assistance from the Jewish Agency and the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

    In January 2013, it was reported that a group of 60 Yemenite Jews had immigrated to Israel in a secret operation, arriving in Israel via a flight from Qatar. This was reported to be part of a larger operation which was being carried out in order to bring the approximately 400 Jews left in Yemen to Israel in the coming months.

    On March 21, 2016, the a group of 19 Yemenite Jews were flown to Israel in a secret operation, leaving the population at about 50.”

    Maybe it’s time to leave?

    ALTERG1
    ALTERG1
    7 years ago

    Yeah, the zionisim really want or need a sefer Torah.