Child protestors attack Jews in Amran

A Jewish man was injured last Sunday when a group of students started throwing stones at buses carrying Jews. The bus was attacked by students taking part in a demonstration to denounce the Israeli attacks in Gaza in the governorate of Amran last Sunday.

Security units arrested some involved in the attack. This incident also resulted in damages to a number of Jewish homes in the city. One Jewish man, Zaher Gafri sustained an injury to his eye and was hospitalized immediately. The Rabbi of the Jewish community in Yemen, Yahya Dawood, said that the Jewish community in Yemen at large denounce and strongly condemns the Israeli attacks in Gaza. “All religions prohibit killing people, regardless of their faith, and we believe that what is happening in Palestine, I mean Gaza, is against all human rights principles,” said Dawood on a phone interview.

Dawood said that they are Yemenis, and feel like all other Yemenis that the attacks against Palestinians in Gaza are against all human norms.  

Security director of the Redah district said that a number of students involved in the incident were arrested with their parents, and investigations are ongoing. The student who injured Zaher Gofri was also arrested. Security sources clarified that the reports of violence against Jewish houses by some media outlets was not true. 

Religious scholars and social figures denounced the attacks against the Yemeni Jews, saying that these Jews are Yemenis, and those who attacked them are ignorant and were moved by the wrong emotions. 

Head of the Guidance and Directions Unit at the Ministry of Guidance and Endowment, Shiekh Yahya al-Najjar said that attacking Yemeni Jews is against  Islamic Shera’ah, the constitution and Yemeni law. He said that the Jews are Yemenis, and enjoy the same rights as all of Yemen’s citizens, and what the students did in Amran is in breach of Islamic Law.    

President Ali Abdullah Saleh issued orders last month for immediate steps to protect the Jewish community after meeting with representatives of Yemen’s Jewish community and listening to their concerns related to their physical safety. 

The President responded to these concerns and directed responsible government authorities to provide each Jewish family with a piece of land in Sana’a, and sufficient money and resources to build themselves a home. Yemen’s Jewish community has been subjected to pressure and threats from some extremist groups in areas where they have previously resided, including Amran and Sa’adah. In order to ensure their security, the government has relocated the country’s Jews to Sana’a.  

President Saleh responded positively and quickly to the demands and concerns of the Jewish families, and ordered responsible government officials to speed up the process of providing the Jewish families with land in Sana’a in order to provide them with a safe haven from possible threats, and to keep them out of areas of the country currently subject to conflict and tribal tension.
This recent decision by the President comes within the context of increasing pressure against Yemen’s tiny Jewish community. They have been subject to threats and intimidation, which they claim has not been addressed despite repeated appeals to government representatives and tribal sheiks. Recently, representatives of the community have demanded government protection, or failing that assistance to leave the country and settling abroad. This issue became especially pressing after the recent murder of a member of the community by an extremist, who claims to have sent a letter beforehand warning that the Yemeni Jews should “convert to Islam, leave the country, or face the sword.” 

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