Yemeni Human Rights Orgs Demand Protection, Justice for Yemeni Jews
As you may recall, a Yemeni Jewish rabbi, father of nine, was slaughtered last month in Yemen in cold blood after demands to convert to Islam. Yemeni human rights organizations are demanding protection of the Jewish community’s rights. Of course, this stance comes at considerable risk due to agitation by extremists within and out of the government.
The killer’s family is harassing and threatening the victim’s family in court, and Jewish residents have been abused and physically injured since the rabbi’s murder. Plans are afoot to relocate the Jewish community to a secure complex in the capital, but when Jewish families were relocated from Sa’ada to Sana’a, they received no monetary compensation for their property left behind. Also the orgs make the valid point the Jews should be able to live anywhere in Yemen that they choose.
The harassment and targeting of Jews in Yemen is new and a result of the continuing Talabanization of Yemen fostered in part by President Ali Abdullah Saleh who promotes and legitimizes the jihaddist ideology.
Sahwa Net: The National Committee for Defending Rights and Freedoms (HOOD) has demanded the Justice Minister to render the killer of a Yemeni Jew, Masha Yaish, from Amran province into the Capital , Sana’a , in order to have a just trial. HOOD said that relatives of the killer had threatened Yaish’s family, provoked confusion inside the court and assaulted a soldier inside the courtroom.
HOOD Online: The Yemen Human Rights Observatory (YHRO)… said that tens of students at Al-Zahra School in Raida assaulted members of the Jewish minority during a random demonstration in protest against the ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza…
They verbally assaulted Jews, threw stones at their houses, and intimidated their women and children. According to the statement, Jew Zaher Gafri sustained critical injuries, his face swelled up, and his appearance was stained with blood. Other Jewish citizens were subject to various injuries while on the street. The protestors hurled stones at houses of Jews Haim Yaeesh, Shakr Sulaiman, Salem Shaghdari, and Yahya Jaradi, and the houses’ occupants were intimidated.
The human rights organization held the security authorities responsible for what happened to the Jewish citizens in Raida, accusing them of being indifferent toward Jewish minorities. It continued that the authorities only asked Jews to move to Sana’a, which is another violation against their right to settle wherever they want.
HOOD, the YHRO and the others taking this stand are being vilified and threatened in the media and in the courtroom. Public sentiment has become more heated and volatile since the Israel incursion into Gaza; however, the organizations continue to press the ruling authorities and courts for some semblance of justice.
