Harry’s Place

Anyone who thinks that hostilities will remain confined to Gaza is living in a dreamworld. We’ve already had a few sparks fly in Lebanon in addition to the international protests and sadly I very much doubt this story is an isolated incident.

Yemeni Jews have been living in Yemen peacefully for hundreds of years.

But lately, they have started to experience intimidations, as Houthi rebels, according to official reports, displaced Jews, in the northern province of Saada.

Sana’a hosted the displaced Jewish families.

Furthermore, a Jew was murdered in December 2008, in Amran province for religion reasons.

After the incident, Jews in the province sought a protection by authorities.

In response to their complaints, President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the allocation of a land plot in Sana’a and YR 2 million for every Jewish family in Amran. Jews, therefore, should sell their properties in Amran and move to Sana’a.
About 150 Jewish families live in Amran.

http://www.yemenpost.net/62/LocalNews/200817.htm

My feeling at the moment is that the first word of the headline could be changed from “Yemeni” to “British” and it would also be true.
“They came first for the Communists” etc.
I wonder what Niemoller would have had to say .

Israelinurse said:”My feeling at the moment is that the first word of the headline could be changed from “Yemeni” to “British” and it would also be true.”

Sadly you are right. I love the way that the trot left and the ex trot left who’ve joined the establishment are completely and utterly blind about attacks against Jewish people and organisations but always seem to pipe up about attacks on others. The ones who keep quite about the fact that only one religion has to have guards at places of worship and its schools are the same ones who scream about ‘Islamophobia’ if Islam and Islamism is mildly criticised.

A double standard exists in the UK.

They (…) threw stones at their houses, and intimidated their women and children.

According to the statement, (…) Zaher Gafri sustained critical injuries, his face swelled up, and his appearance was stained with blood. Other (…) citizens were subject to various injuries while on the street. The protestors hurled stones at houses of (…) Haim Yaeesh, Shakr Sulaiman, Salem Shaghdari, and Yahya Jaradi, and the houses’ occupants were intimidated.

YHRO said it observed the violations (…), adding that the security authority’s intervention came late. The security personnel arrested some of the assailants and detained them but did not announce the results of their investigation.

Stones thrown at defenseless people, the police arriving too late, the authorities starting investigations that never lead anywhere…

If it were not because the victims are described as citizens, this could well be a report on the daily attacks on Palestinians by Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Hasbara, it’s interesting you can’t find it in yourself to condemn the anti-Jewish attacks in Yemen, preferring to turn everything around to Israel and its citizens’ transgressions. Do you see the Yemen attacks as some kind of ‘pay back’?

I see this all too much. For example, when Hamas is noted to be an anti-Semitic hate organisation and its spokesmen are quoted talking about annihilating ‘the Jews’, people invariably turn up saying ‘Ah, but Israel…’ as though two wrongs somehow make a right.

The attacks on Jews in Yemen are disgusting and should be condemned outright without qualification.

Edmund Standing said:”The attacks on Jews in Yemen are disgusting and should be condemned outright without qualification.”

I couldn’t agree more.

10,000 British demonstrators mob the Yemeni Embassy protesting attacks on the ancient Jewish Community of Yemen. Sadly not in my lifetime…

Ironically, if the attacks are motivated by the war in Gaza, as seems likely, the Yemeni Jews left there are not even interested in Israel or Zionism and almost the only outside Jews they see are anti-Zionist Haredim, who actively discourage on religious grounds attempts to emigrate to Israel.

However from an Arab perspective, a Jew is a Jew wherever he comes from and equally jointly culpable in the eyes of the attacker. Only the Western left and savvy Islamists speaking in Englsih distinguish Israelis/Zionists from Jews in general…

10,000 British demonstrators mob the Yemeni Embassy protesting attacks on the ancient Jewish Community of Yemen. Sadly not in my lifetime…

At least the Yemeni government has offered to build a neighborhood for the Jews, and pay them compensation for the uprooting. That’s not how things should be, but at least it shows this is not an instance of ruthless government persecution (which is what would warrant a demo outside the Yemeni embassy).

Hasbara, it’s interesting you can’t find it in yourself to condemn the anti-Jewish attacks in Yemen, preferring to turn everything around to Israel and its citizens’ transgressions. Do you see the Yemen attacks as some kind of ‘pay back’?

I condemn the anti-Jewish attacks in Yemen, and would be the first to say so in a context in which people attempted to justify them. But in a forum in which the condemnation has already been sufficiently done by other people, I try to analyze other aspects of this news item.

HB surely could comment on things closer at hand, for instance, the carnage commited against Jews in his own backyard, Buenos Aires, where one can murder tens of Jews without being brought to justice. But he has always shown himself rather shy when it comes to this subject. He could also tell us about the reasons Jews have been emmigrating from his country. As someone so well informed about the Wets bank of the Jordan, I’m sure he has a lot of knowledge about the West bank (banda occidental) of the Plata to share with us all.

My blog has been following this story since the murder of Moshe al-Nahari on 11 December by a Muslim fundamentalist who taunted him to ‘convert or die,’ - well before the outbreak of war in gaza. The Yemen government has promised to relocate the Jews closer to the capital, San’aa where it has greater control, and build a ghetto for them. The sad fact is, however, that these last few Jews in Yemen, no matter how anti-Zionist they proclaim themselves to be, have no future. The situation of Jews has always been precarious in Arab lands and nowhere more so in an unstable place like Yemen. One fact seldom mentioned is that these Jews are ‘dhimmis’, unarmed according to Sharia law, whereas all the other clans are bristling with guns and knives.

Reluctantly, because there is a long, long history in Yemen, I say they should go to Israel and forget living as a largely despised minority.

If it were not because the victims are described as citizens, this could well be a report on the daily attacks on Palestinians by Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Hmm…so Yemeni Jews have been lobbing rockets at Yemeni Muslims?

Yam

Yemeni Jews have been living in Yemen peacefully for hundreds of years.

I make it thousands.

But lately, they have started to experience intimidations, as Houthi rebels, according to official reports, displaced Jews, in the northern province of Saada.

You’re repeating the same propaganda encouraged by the neo-Yemenite Takfiris - You’ll notice that the fellow responsible for murdering the Rabbi was not Zaydi.

Zaydis have been persecuted by the marxists in Sana’a for years and have common cause with the Jews.

…whereas all the other clans are bristling with guns and knives…

Carrying a jambiyyah in Yemen is tradition, especially for Zaydis. It’s no different to a Texan carrying a rifle.

I`m surprised there any jews left in yemen after Operation Magic Carpet. They missed the plane eh:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Magic_Carpet_(Yemen)

Yemeni Jews came under attack months ago and had to flee their homes, many of which were subsequently destroyed.

This long predates the Gaza situation.

Once again I don’t recall any protests. Nobody camped outside the Yemeni embassy. Nobody marched with posters declaring that Arabs should be eliminated from the earth.

Ah, why bother.

One must comment however that “HB”‘ is employing a propaganda technique known as “turnspeak”, which was popularly employed by the Soviets although it probably goes back to the caves.

It’s a fine way to avoid dealing with the topic at hand and attempting to pull a bait and switch instead of responding to an argument honestly.

As far as I’m concerned this is just another way of perpetrating violence and hate.

There can be no resolution to any of our problems on this earth until people stop applying double standards for the “wrong” people (ideologically speaking of course) and double speak for the “correct” people (ideologically speaking of course) and condemning others disproportionately - especially when they happen to be Jews who are apparently ALWAYS the “wrong” people regardless of the situation.

For those of you who claim to be oh so noble defenders of human rights - who are the real minority here? The billions of Muslims and Christians or the 14, 15 million Jews? While you’re busily defending the minority of billions and condemning the tiny and manifestly endangered Jewish community take a deep breath and ask yourself how the heck this matches your stated ideals?

Please study some history including the history of pogroms in the modern Middle East. I’ll assume you already know about the pogroms in Europe though maybe I’m reaching here.

But I’ll give you all the benefit of the doubt and assume the Shoah, the Inquisition, the expulsions and persecutions - the battering of Jews during the Crusades - the antisemitism of the elites who should have known better - the judenhass that has permeated the west since Roman times is well known and understood.

Then write something that makes some sense. Please stop reflexively blaming the Jews for trying to stay alive and please stop fueling the hate that is driving all this violence. Or maybe it hasn’t occurred to you fine idealistic citizens of the world that you are partially responsible for inciting “resistance” instead of working for real peace and real democracy?

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.

Sophia, I appreciate your comment I really do, and Zaydis have certainly not been blameless when it comes to persecuting Yemenite Jews. That said, what little information there is on the Net about Jews in Yemen or about Yemen itself, even in Arabic, unfairly portrays Zaydis in general as Nazis. This is grossly unfair, particularly in light of the fact that Zaydis are a religious minority not just in Yemen, but in the Middle East as a whole, and have been persecuted not just by Ahl us-Sunnah but also mainstream 12er Shi’ism.

Yemenite Jewish culture is fascinating though and it’s to our undying shame as the human race that more hasn’t been done to protect them as an ethnic minority. I had a friend at uni who was of Yemenite origin and she spoke lovingly of her infrequent visits to the home of her forefathers. You can hear Yemenite music here and piyutim.

Wasn’t Ofra Haza a Yemenite Jew?

Wasn’t Ofra Haza a Yemenite Jew?

Apparently so. Hers is a tragic story in many ways. She was hauntingly beautiful and truly gifted musically.