Sanaa |By Nasser Arrabyee | 06-07-2002 http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=56745 Very few Jews remain in Yemen following organised emigration to Israel, the U.S. and UK over the past five decades. However, all those who stayed back here say that they do not want to leave the "homeland of our parents and ancestors". They even say that they hate Israel and consider the Israeli leaders to be "very far from the real Judaism and Torah." Official statistics indicate that there are about 400 Jews left in Yemen, but non-official estimates say there are some 1,500 Jews who are living mainly in Raydah town, 45km north of the capital Sanaa. They are a minority among 18 million Yemeni Muslims. With the constitution and laws granting rights of full citizenship, they seem to be loyal to their homeland of Yemen and don't want to migrate anywhere, particularly to Israel. They go to the polls and vote freely like any other Yemeni citizen. They have full membership in political parties. Most of them are members of President Al Abdullah Al Saleh's ruling party, the People's General Congress. Yahya Habeeb, a Jew from Raydah, the main centre of the remaining Jews in Yemen, told Gulf News that he refuses to emigrate to Israel because he can't leave the place where he and his parents and grandparents were born. He said that Jews live in peace with the Yemeni tribes and they are not suffer from any annoyance or harassment. "We, the Jews, and the tribes are brothers, we don't quarrel with them and neither do they quarrel with us," Habeeb noted. Like other citizens, Jews rushed quickly to the donation centres when the 10-day donation campaign to raise funds for the victims of Jenin Camp in the Occupied Territories was launched in Yemen earlier this year. They donated both money and blood to the Palestinian people. They even voiced their readiness to fight against Sharon and his troops. They declared their condemnation of what they considered as terrorist practices and crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. In TV interviews during the Jenin donation campaign, Jews described the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a "terrorist and war criminal". "He has nothing to do with Judaism. All his acts are prohibited by the Torah and are a violation of the Jewish doctrines," another Jew told Gulf News. They say their brothers who migrated to Israel could not adapt to the Jews there as well as those coming from other countries, especially from Europe, because of the sense of isolation and discrimination they suffer from. Seven Jewish families from Yemen who migrated only about two years ago requested the Israeli authorities to return them to Yemen due to economic difficulties and their inability to adapt to the new circumstances, an Israeli newspaper reported last month. Amran Bin Yahya migrated to the U.S. with his seven-member family eight years ago. Two years later, he decided to return to his hometown of Raydah, leaving his wife and children behind. He didn't like the traditions and habits which he said are completely different from what he is used to, especially the exaggerated liberation of women. Yahya said he couldn't control his wife when she suddenly renounced the traditions, customs and morals she had learnt since childhood. "I wish I had not travelled. It would have been better if my children and wife had stayed in Yemen," Yahya stressed. "The social life in Yemen is better. What you have is yours, your wife is yours and so are your children. But there if your wife gets out of your control, you cannot do anything to keep her," Yahya stated. The Jewish sect in Yemen love and respect President Saleh and they pray for him and wish him the best of health and all success. In return, they enjoy his protection and safety. However, they say they should not be blamed for the mistakes of others, referring to the Israel massacres committed against the Palestinian people. Jews are believed to have come to Yemen in the aftermath of the first destruction of the Temple in 589 BC. They migrated to the north of the Arabian Peninsula where they lived preaching and spreading Judaism until Prophet Mohammed's (PBUH) Islamic mission arrived in Yemen in 628 AC. So, they only had to convert to Islam or pay jeziah and continue living as before. In 1876, Rabbi Yezhaq Shaool called upon the Jews of the world to help Yemen's Jews remain in contact with him, but Yemen's Jews refused to migrate to Palestine out of the conviction that the return to Palestine must happen only "according to Allah's will, and not a human being's will". Jews used to enjoy good relations with the ruler of Yemen, Imman Yahya Hameed Al Dain, (1904 -1948), who ordered no entry into Jewish zones from Friday evening until Sunday morning every week as a sign of respect for their religious rituals. The ban was not only on the public but also on soldiers, officials and judges. He also prevented judges from summoning Jews on their sacred Saturdays. In 1911, Samuel Yazer Yavenly came to Yemen to convince the Jews there that the Zionist movement would "liberate the Jews from oppression". Some were convinced while others refused. Some 4, 234 Jews migrated to Palestine between 1911 and 1919 and about 4,700 Jews from 1939 to 1945. With support from the UK and U.S. and cooperation from Yemeni authorities, 47,170 Jews migrated to Palestine in a famous exodus known as the "flying carpet" between 1948 and 1950. The "flying carpet" used 430 flights and cost $4,500,000. The Jewish emigration from Yemen to Palestine started in 1882. The number of Jews who migrated from Yemen to Israel are estimated at 130,000-150,000, with only few of them having gone to the U.S. and Britain. |