AP continues its blame Israel for anti-Semitism crusade

In an article that describes government and religious persecution of Yemen’s Jews, the AP manages to blame Israel—in the lead—for Yemen’s Jew hatred.

Yemen’s Jews, here and elsewhere in the country, are thought to have roots dating back nearly 3,000 years to King Solomon. The community used to number 60,000 but shrank dramatically when most left for the newborn state of Israel.

Those remaining, variously estimated to number 250 to 400, are feeling new and sometimes violent pressure from Yemeni Muslims, lately inflamed by Israel’s fierce offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza that cost over 1,000 Palestinian lives.

They face a Yemeni government that is ambivalent – publicly supportive but also lax in keeping its promises – in an Arab world where Islamic extremism and hostility to minorities are generally on the rise.

The inflammation doesn’t seem very recent, if you read the rest of the article. And that bit about Yemeni Jews leaving for the newborn state of Israel? They didn’t so much leave as fled.

In 1947, after the partition vote, Muslim rioters, joined by the local police force, engaged in a bloody pogrom in Aden that killed 82 Jews and destroyed hundreds of Jewish homes. Aden’s Jewish community was economically paralyzed, as most of the Jewish stores and businesses were destroyed. Early in 1948, the false accusation of the ritual murder of two girls led to looting.

And then there is this charming fact: Yemen managed to hide the fact that it still had Jews for another two and a half decades:

Until 1976, when an American diplomat came across a small Jewish community in a remote region of northern Yemen, it was believed the Yemenite Jewish community was extinct. As a result, the plight of Yemenite Jews went unrecognized by the outside world.

It turned out some people stayed behind during Operation “Magic Carpet” because family members did not want to leave sick or elderly relatives behind. These Jews were forbidden from emigrating and not allowed to contact relatives abroad. They were isolated and trapped, scattered throughout the mountainous regions in northern Yemen and lacking food, clothing, medical care and religious articles. As a result, some Yemenite Jews abandoned their faith and converted to Islam.

If you read the rest of the article, you see the abuse that Yemeni Jews are forced to live with.

In Kharif, Yahya Yaish Al-Qedeimi has a long list of complaints about how he and his fellow Jews are treated: harassment in the market, stones thrown at the school bus, insults from villagers walking past his house.

When Saddam Hussein was executed, “they pelted our house with rocks,” he said.

And yet, in the lead, the writer or the editor—or both—managed to blame Israel for Yemen’s anti-Semitism. The AP is trying to mainstream this despicable idea. It needs to stop.