First step to full citizenship?

ABDULRAHMAN SHAMLAN THE MEDIA LINE

Sana’a
Five members of the tiny Jewish community in Yemen have been appointed to the country’s upcoming National Dialogue Conference (NDC), according to Jewish community leader Rabbi Yahya Yousef Mosa. In an interview, he said that he is thrilled with the decision, and was thankful to President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

There are only about 300 Jews in Yemen today, and they are not full citizens. They are not allowed to serve in the army or be elected to political office. Analysts in Yemen say that including Jews in the NDC could be a first step to making them full and equal citizens.

The NDC is a part of the Gulf Cooperation Council-organized, Western countries-backed power transfer deal, which saw former president Ali Abdullah Saleh step down in February 2012 and peacefully relinquish power to Hadi, his longtime deputy.

Amal Al-Bashra, spokesperson for the NDC, said she had no idea that Jewish Yemenis were given five seats, although, she added, “they might have been informed by the president’s office.”

While the final number of Jewish delegates remains uncertain, Jews and other Yemeni minorities, like black Yemenis, known locally by the pejorative term Akdam (meaning servant), are slated to participate in the conference, according to Nadia Al-Sakkaf, spokeswoman for the National Dialogue liaison committee tasked with organizing the conference, which will have a total of 565 delegates. She added that the number of seats assigned to each group is as yet undetermined.

Yemeni Jews trace their origin to the time of King Solomon. Almost 50,000 emigrated to Israel soon after the creation of the state in 1948, and experts believe that the Jewish community inside Yemen will become extinct in a few years.

Of the tens of thousands of Jews who once lived in Yemen, only 300 still live in the country, according to Mosa. Fifty-six Jews live in a protected residential area close to the U.S. embassy in Sana’a, while the rest live in Raida in Amman province. Those who live in Sana’a were forced to leave their homes in the northern province of Sa’adah by the Teheran-backed Houthi group in 2007.

The NDC is considered a very significant step in healing the current divisions in the world’s poorest Arab state and to giving the various political groups a chance to find ways of resolving the country’s major challenges, such as calls for southern Yemen to secede and a lack of security in the country.

But Al-Sakkaf said what’s important is the mere fact that Jews and other minorities will be represented at all, regardless of how many seats they receive. “What matters is that they will be there to convey their grievances and raise issues in the conference. Therefore, even one representative will be enough,” she said.

Jewish involvement in the NDC is a positive step towards granting them full citizenship, Al-Sakkaf added, an opinion shared by Mohammed Naji Alaw, chairman of Yemen’s most prominent human rights group, the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms.

“It’s not surprising that the Jews will be represented in the NDC,” he said. “They have every right to take part in it because they are a component of Yemen’s society. There are no laws or provisions in the Yemeni constitution that prohibit Jews from participating in the political process, but the problem with Yemeni Jews is that they are very few and choose not to integrate. They don’t study in public schools and they isolate themselves from Yemeni society,” he said. “I know there are reasons and social factors that prompt them to do so, but I hope they integrate into society and take part in the political process, regardless of how few of them there are.”

Chairman of the Sawa Organization for Anti-Discrimination Fuad Al-Alawy agreed with Alaw that involving Jewish citizens in the NDC is a major step forward, but he disagreed that the small number of Jews poses any obstacle to their involvement in the political process.

“The problem is not in the number of the Jews, but rather with the government, which imposes unfair measures on minorities,” Al-Alawy said. “It makes no difference whether they are one or a million. They are Yemeni nationals and should be given their full rights.”

Al-Alawy also outlined acts of government discrimination against Yemeni Jews. “The Jews living in the Sawan residential area in downtown Sana’a are not allowed to even speak and meet with human rights activists or journalists,” he noted. “Is that fair, when some citizens are allowed to speak with the media and some are not?” He described their living conditions in Sawan as akin to being under house arrest.

The Yemeni government provides Jews with free housing in Sawan as well as monthly stipends, but it’s dangerous for them to leave the house and they risk death if they do – in May 2011, a Yemeni Jew was killed in Sana’a by a member of Al-Qaeda.

When shopping or going out, almost all of Sana’a Jews hide their traditional payot under Yemeni shawls for fear of being singled out and attacked by Islamic fundamentalists, human rights activists report.

While human rights activists speak about the discrimination against the Jewish minority, Mosa downplayed Jewish suffering in Yemen. “We don’t suffer from anything,” he told this reporter. “The Jewish community has no grievances. This is our country and we have to stand up against those who are trying to portray Yemeni Jews as persecuted. They only want to distort our homeland’s image.”

All agree, however, that participation in the NDC is a great opportunity for Yemeni Jews. “If Yemeni Jews organize themselves politically, I can predict that they will play a stronger role in the new Yemen than they did before,” said Al-Sakkaf. “The main point is that they need to get organized and advocate a political platform.”

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