The picture that sparked a disaster
The unforeseen fall-out of a rescue operation endangers those left behind
By Sandy Rashty, April 21, 2016
Benjamin Netanyahu poses with an 800-year-old Sefer Torah - and the Yemeni Jews who smuggled it to Israel
When almost 20 Yemeni Jews fled the town of Raydah in a covert operation, few people thought of the handful of members of the 3,000 year-old Jewish community who had been left behind in the nearby city of Sana'a.
As the figurehead of the exodus, Rabbi Saliman Dahari - who brought an 800-year-old Torah with him to Israel - posed for pictures with Benjamin Netanyahu last month, he was not to know that the widely-circulated image would have serious consequences for the Sana'a Jews.
Yemeni authorities were incensed by images of the Israeli prime minister holding what they considered to be an artefact belonging to their country.
To their mind the Sefer Torah had been illegally smuggled out of Yemen.
The JC can reveal that the consequences of the image being seen around the world were catastrophic.
Israel's Immigration and Absorption Minister Ze'ev Elkin said the media reports endangered lives of those who remained in the country.
He said: "One of the reasons that there are problems for the Jews still in Yemen is because so many people spoke about it. It's better to deal with these kinds of issues quietly."
Just days after media outlets told the story of the rescue of the 17 Yemeni Jews, armed forces closed in on the remaining members of the community living in the city riddled with civil unrest and controlled by Houthi rebels.
Soldiers banged on the door of an Orthodox teacher in his 30s. They arrested him on suspicion of helping "smuggle" the Torah scroll out of Yemen.
A second Jewish civilian, who made aliyah 10 years ago but later returned to Yemen, was arrested for being a "Mossad Zionist spy" last week. On Wednesday, his mother was also taken into custody. A Muslim airport worker was also arrested for allegedly failing to seize Rabbi Dahari's bag at checkout.
Israeli American Moti Kahana, founder of NGO Amaliah, who famously helped rescue the last Jews of Aleppo in Syria last year, is one many activists said to be negotiating with Houthi representatives to free all four detainees, who are believed to have been tortured.
On Wednesday, Mr Kahana said he hoped they would be home in time for tonight's Seder. He said: "We are talking to the Yemenis. We have put two offers on the table to get them out of jail. We hope they will be home for Pesach.
"The rest of the community is very scared. They are being told by authorities that if anyone leaves, especially to Israel, the rest are going to jail."
Mr Kahana said he wants his New York-based organisation, which cares for hundreds of Jewish artefacts from Syria, to hold the Torah.
He said: "When I saw the scroll in the media I knew the Yemeni government would complain, they would say that international law was broken.
"We would bring the Torah to New York for safe-keeping until Yemen is safe. One day, when the war is over and Jews return to the country, the Torah can go back to Yemen.
"If not, we will pay them restitution for the smuggling of the Torah - a few hundred thousand pounds in exchange for the release of the people."
But Avi Mayer, spokesman for the Jewish Agency, said the scroll was "the property of the Raydah Jewish community, of Yemeni Jewry, and of the Jewish people.The rabbi of Raydah brought the Torah with him and has been proudly and openly sharing this cherished part of his community's rich religious heritage."
More than 51,000 Yemeni Jews have resettled in Israel, with more than 200 moving in recent years.
Last updated: 5:38pm, April 21 2016
Secret airlift 'ends historic mission to bring Yemenis home'
By Nathan Jeffay, March 23, 2016
One of the new Yemeni immigrants is greeted by a relative at an absorption centre in Beersheva on Monday
Towards the end of last week, 19 Jewish citizens of Yemen, a country embroiled in a bitter civil war, secretly began packing their bags.
On Sunday, the last of them walked through the arrivals hall in Ben Gurion airport to start new lives in Israel.
The immigrants, young and old, arrived late at night. One of them, a rabbi, carried a 500-year-old Torah scroll. They included relatives of Aharon Zindani, who was murdered in 2012 - one of two antisemitic murders in the country in the past decade.
"From Operation Magic Carpet in 1949 until the present day, the Jewish Agency has helped bring Yemeni Jewry home to Israel," said Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky. "Today, we bring that historic mission to a close." The 50 Jews who are left in Yemen have decided that they want to stay there.
While the latest operation was on a far smaller scale than the mass emigration that wowed the Jewish world almost seven decades ago, it has also caused amazement. There are no clear answers on how the Jewish Agency managed to get the Jews out of Yemen at a time when its allies in past operations, Britain and the US, have shuttered their Yemeni embassies, and when the Saudi blockade is firmly in place.
"I know that the Americans have been involved but how they did it and what route they took I don't know," said Dov Levitan, Israel's leading expert on Yemenite Jewry and a professor at Bar-Ilan University. Jewish Agency officials will only confirm that the plane that brought the immigrants to Ben Gurion was not Israeli.
Dr Levitan thinks that Yemeni officials may have been paid off as part of the operation. "It could be corruption," he said, adding that he also believed Mossad was involved.
Jewish Agency spokesman Avi Mayer said that, of the 50 Jews who remain in Yemen, the majority live in a special compound in Sanaa, where they are protected by Yemeni authorities. Mr Mayer added, however, that the group's movement was very restricted.
There are no clear answers on how the Jewish Agency got them out
The Yemenites who have just arrived in Israel are living in an absorption centre in Beersheva and, after a stint there that will include Hebrew classes, are expected to move to parts of the country where they have relatives. Although immigration normally attracts limited interest in Israel, TV and newspapers enthusiastically reported their arrival.
Within 24 hours, they had been hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At the meeting, they read to him from their Torah scroll. "I am very excited to see you here," Mr Netanyahu said. "It is moving that you know to read from the Torah. This is the basis. For many years we have thought about bringing you and, with God's help, it is over."
Last updated: 3:16pm, March 31 2016
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