A new United Nations report on Yemen released last week documents that systematic persecution of Jews in the country has led to the community dwindling to just seven Jews, the Jewish Insider (JI) reported last week.
The annual report submitted to the UN Security Council “documented the systematic persecution of Jews in Houthi-controlled areas,” finding that “most of the Jewish population left Yemen after several years of persecution, which started under former President Ali Abdullah Saleh but intensified under the Houthis.”
The report noted the existence of “seven Jewish individuals still in Yemen, including one who remains detained despite an order to release him issued in July 2019,” a reference to Levi Marhabi who has been imprisoned by Houthi rebels since 2016 due to his alleged role in smuggling an 800-year-old Sefer Torah into Israel.
A State Department spokesperson told JI, “We understand the Houthis continue to detain Mr. Marhabi despite our calls, and those by the international community, for his release.”
The report also documents incidents of religious persecution against members of the Christian and Baha’i communities as well as the Houthis’ recruitment of child soldiers in their battle against the Saudi-backed government, saying that over 2,000 child soldiers have been killed.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
Lol… persecution of Yemeni Jews by Yemen’s Muslims has been happening for centuries. It certainly didn’t start with the President Saleh, and it is a gross distortion of history for the UN to claim as such. My own great grandfather died in a Yemeni prison due to religious persecution. But this doesn’t align with the Western narrative that Muslims are tolerant pacifists, so it will be suppressed.