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Yemeni Jews move to Israel after attacks
Ten Yemeni Jews moved to Israel on Thursday after a murder and a series of attacks sparked fear among their small community.Among the new immigrants who landed at Ben Gurion international airport was Said Ben Yisrael, who heads the Jewish community in Raydah, which is home to all but 50 of the Jews who live in Yemen. Eight members of his family were also among the new arrivals, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel, a semi-governmental organisation which organised their trip jointly with the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America. Several weeks ago, extremists threw a grenade into Yisrael's courtyard. Following further threats on his life, he left Raydah with his wife and seven children to live in the capital Sanaa. Fear grips community Fearful members of the small Jewish community of Raydah in northern Yemen have closed their three synagogues and two schools, and avoid public places after a man who refused to convert was murdered. The 260 Jews who stayed on in the area when their co-religionists emigrated to Israel by the thousands used to coexist comfortably with their Muslim neighbors. But on Dec. 11, Masha Yaish al-Nahari, a father of nine who taught Hebrew at one of the community's two schools, was gunned down by a Muslim who accosted him near his home demanding that he convert to Islam. The suspect, Abdul Aziz Yahya al-Abdi, 39, who has repeatedly confessed to the murder in court saying he had warned the town's Jews to leave or convert if they wanted to stay alive, faces a possible death sentence if convicted when the trial wraps up on March 2. Receiving murder threats
The only Jewish people present for Monday's session were the victim's father and widow, as Abdi's clansmen packed the courtroom, many wearing traditional curved daggers on their belts, to support the man in the dock. "In the past, we lived in security, but now, we are all afraid," the victim's father Yaeish al-Nahari told AFP at his home in Raydah, a large dusty agricultural town swept by the wind. Naharim who is in his 60s, said that he considers himself Yemeni first and Jewish second, but that he is desperate to leave as soon as he can sell his house and doesn't mind where he goes. "The president supports us. We are under his protection," Nahari said. "But if the government does not protect us, we will go to Israel," he said, adding that three of his five daughters have already emigrated there. Posted by: Fred 2009-02-20 |
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