Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Yemen
Operation Magic Carpet, the expulsion of Yemen's last Jews by Ansar Allah (the Houthis), the 2016 Jewish Agency airlift, Ansar Allah attacks on shipping and on the Zionist entity, and Israeli strikes on Hodeidah and Sanaa
Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Yemen run from one of the largest Jewish migrations to "Israel" to open war with Ansar Allah. Nearly 50,000 Jews were airlifted from Yemen, Aden, Djibouti and Asmara in 1948–50 in what the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee called Operation Magic Carpet.[1] By 2023 one Jew was believed to remain in the country, held by Ansar Allah.[2] Since 2023 Ansar Allah has attacked shipping and fired missiles and drones at "Israel", and "Israel" has struck the port of Hodeidah, Sanaa airport and the Ansar Allah government.[3][4]
Jewish community and religious life
History
The World Jewish Congress says the Jews of Yemen trace their origins to biblical times, and that the first recorded reference to them dates from the third century CE. Restrictions on Jews continued into the 19th century, and waves of Jews began leaving in 1882, mainly for Palestine. Although Imam Yahya banned emigration to Palestine in 1929, about 16,000 Jews, a third of the community, left between 1919 and 1948. His son and successor eased the ban, which "allowed for the massive airlift". After riots in 1947 most of the South Yemen community also left, and the rest were evacuated to Britain in June 1967.[5] According to the JDC, the riots in Aden that followed the UN partition vote of November 1947 killed 82 Jews.[1]
The last Jews and Ansar Allah
In March 2021 Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Ansar Allah had driven 13 Jews from three families out of their homes in Sanaa, leaving four elderly Jews. It said the 13 had refused to go to "Israel" and were waiting for the UN refugee agency to resettle them. Their departure was part of a deal to free Levi Salem Marhabi, a Jew held by Ansar Allah intelligence. One of them said, "They gave us a choice between staying in the midst of harassment and keeping Salem a prisoner or leaving and having him released."[6] Al-Monitor added that in January 2021 some Yemenite Jews had been allowed into the United Arab Emirates, where they joined relatives living in London.[7] Marhabi was not freed. The US State Department reported that at the end of 2023 Ansar Allah still held Marhabi, "believed to be the last Jew left in the country", despite a 2019 order by an Ansar Allah "court" to free him. A Yemeni NGO, the Insaf Center, said he had been tortured and left partly paralysed. The Ansar Allah slogan includes "Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews", and the Ansar Allah-owned al-Masirah TV broadcast antisemitic programmes. Jews could not serve in the military or national government.[2]
How far is it Zionist? No Jewish communal body survives in Yemen. The 2021 exiles refused to go to "Israel", according to Asharq Al-Awsat.[6] The Zionist link was the Jewish Agency airlift of 2016. Al-Monitor reports that Marhabi's arrest was apparently linked to that operation, and that Ansar Allah was angered when Netanyahu was photographed with a Torah scroll the group brought out.[7]
Chabad
No Chabad emissary or centre was found in Yemen.
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch in West Asia
The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States lists no rabbi for Yemen.[8]
Zionist movement and advocacy
No Zionist organisation operating in Yemen was found. Zionist activity took the form of organised emigration, through the JDC and the Jewish Agency in 1948–50 and the Jewish Agency in 2016 (see below).[1][9]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Ansar Allah attacks on shipping
According to Lloyd's List, in the year after Ansar Allah hijacked the car carrier Galaxy Leader and took its crew hostage, the security company Ambrey counted more than 300 attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. Most traffic was rerouted. The group has always said it targets Israeli-owned ships or ships that have called at Israeli ports, but Lloyd's List found that Greek owners were the most often targeted by tonnage.[3]
Strikes on Hodeidah, 2024
On 19 July 2024 an Ansar Allah drone hit Tel Aviv, killing one person.[10] The next day "Israel" struck the port of Hodeidah, the first time it had responded directly to what it said were hundreds of drone and missile attacks from Yemen.[11] The strikes hit a refinery, oil facilities and power infrastructure. The Ansar Allah channel Almasirah reported three killed and 87 wounded. The defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said, "The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them."[10]
Sanaa airport, 2025
On 6 May 2025 "Israel" struck Sanaa airport. Airport sources told Reuters that the strikes hit three civilian planes, the departures hall, the runway and a military air base. The Israeli military said it also struck power stations and a cement factory. The IDF said Ansar Allah used the airport to "transfer weapons and operatives".[12] On 28 May it struck the airport again. The airport's director said the strike destroyed the last civilian plane Yemenia was operating there, which was due to carry Hajj pilgrims. Israel Katz said the air force had "destroyed the last aircraft remaining".[13]
Killing of the Ansar Allah prime minister, 2025
On 30 August 2025 Ansar Allah said its prime minister, Ahmed Ghaleb al-Rahawi, had been killed along with "several" other ministers in an Israeli strike on Sanaa on Thursday 28 August. The Israeli military said it had hit "a Houthi terrorist regime military target". Mahdi al-Mashat, who chairs Ansar Allah's Supreme Political Council, vowed revenge.[4] The BBC reported that al-Rahawi had been prime minister since August 2024 and was widely seen as a figurehead rather than part of the group's military decision-making.[14]
The 2026 war
On 28 March 2026 Ansar Allah said it had fired ballistic missiles at "sensitive Israeli military sites", its first attacks on "Israel" in the war with Iran. "Israel" said it intercepted one missile. The Ansar Allah military spokesman, Yahya Saree, announced a second wave of cruise missiles and drones.[15] According to the US Congressional Research Service, in July 2026 Ansar Allah resumed attacks on Saudi Arabia, and in September 2026 it seized the coastal areas next to the Bab al-Mandeb strait.[16]
Arms, trade and intelligence
The SIPRI register records no arms transfers from "Israel" to Yemen.[17] The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics country trade table does not list Yemen.[18] Citizen Lab's 2018 survey of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware listed Yemen among 45 countries with suspected infections, linked to an operator it called BLACKBIRD, which it did not assign to any country.[19] In 2021 Citizen Lab reported that Microsoft had found victims of spyware from the Israeli firm Candiru in countries including Yemen.[20]
Migration and aliyah
Operation Magic Carpet, 1948–50
The JDC says it "planned, coordinated, implemented, and financed" Operation Magic Carpet, "the largest human airlift in history". Flights chartered from Alaska Airlines carried nearly 50,000 Jews from Yemen, Aden, Djibouti and Asmara to "Israel" between December 1948 and September 1950. Its records show the Jewish Agency set conditions for the first phase and negotiated with the JDC over transport costs.[1] The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics records 48,315 Yemeni-born immigrants (including South Yemen) in 1948–51, 1,170 in 1952–60, 1,066 in 1961–71 and 671 in 1990–99.[21]
The 2016 airlift
In March 2016 the Jewish Agency said that 19 Jews had been brought to "Israel" from Yemen in a "covert operation": 14 from the town of Raydah and a family of five from Sanaa. They included a rabbi carrying a 500-year-old Torah scroll. About 50 Jews chose to stay, most in a compound near the US embassy in Sanaa. The agency's head, Natan Sharansky, said the arrivals had "brought the mission to its conclusion".[9][22]
2021
No source reviewed records an airlift to "Israel" in 2021. The 2021 departures were the Ansar Allah expulsion of 13 Jews, who refused to go to "Israel", and the arrival of some Yemenite Jews in the UAE (see above).[6][7]
Political interference
Ansar Allah said the Torah scroll taken to "Israel" in 2016 had been smuggled out illegally.[7] According to Asharq Al-Awsat, it used Marhabi's detention as a bargaining chip to drive out the last Jews.[6] Ansar Allah says its attacks on "Israel" and on shipping support the Palestinians in Gaza.[11]
Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein corresponded with the Yemeni billionaire Shaher Abdulhak from 2012, according to Justice Department documents reviewed by the Miami Herald. Abdulhak's son Farouk, a suspect in the 2008 rape and murder of the Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen in London, had left Britain for Yemen. In June 2012 Epstein told Abdulhak that he had spoken to the British lawyer Ken Macdonald and advised him to focus on "what punishment would be acceptable". Macdonald told the Herald that he had no recollection of more than a single call from Epstein, that Epstein was never his client, and that he would never have told him that Farouk would get bail. Farouk remains in Yemen. In 2018 Abdulhak called Epstein a potential "peace maker in Yemen" and asked him to speak to the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, about a four-day halt to the bombing; it is not known whether he did. Abdulhak died in 2020.[23] On 11 June 2013 Epstein asked a correspondent: "somaliland , yemen, comoros island , are there any gates program there". The reply was "No".[24]
See also
- Chabad-Lubavitch in West Asia
- Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States
- Jewish Agency for Israel
- Zionist movement
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Saudi Arabia
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Iran
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Oman
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives, Finding Aid – Jerusalem – 1944-1952 – Aden JDC Archives, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Yemen US Department of State, 2024.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lloyd's List, A year of Houthi terror in numbers Lloyd's List, 19 November 2024.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Al Jazeera, Yemen's Houthis confirm prime minister killed in Israeli strike on Sanaa Al Jazeera, 30 August 2025.
- ↑ World Jewish Congress, Community in Yemen World Jewish Congress, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Mohammed Nasser, Houthis Expel the Last of Yemeni Jews Asharq Al-Awsat, 28 March 2021.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Rina Bassist, Houthis deport some of Yemen's last remaining Jews Al-Monitor, 29 March 2021.
- ↑ Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, The Rabbis rabbisalliance.org, accessed 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Al Jazeera, Yemeni Jews flown to Israel in covert operation Al Jazeera, 22 March 2016.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Ruth Michaelson, Israel strikes Yemen port after Houthi rebels attack Tel Aviv The Guardian, 20 July 2024.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Tom Spender and Paul Adams, Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen after drone attack on Tel Aviv BBC News, 20 July 2024.
- ↑ BBC News, Israel attacks main airport in Yemen's capital Sanaa BBC News, 6 May 2025.
- ↑ Al Jazeera, Israel attacks Yemen's Sanaa airport; Houthis say won't deter Gaza support Al Jazeera, 28 May 2025.
- ↑ Jaroslav Lukiv, Houthis confirm their prime minister killed in Israeli strike BBC News, 30 August 2025.
- ↑ Julian Borger, Houthi forces enter Iran conflict with missile attacks on Israeli military sites The Guardian, 28 March 2026.
- ↑ Christopher M. Blanchard, Jeremy M. Sharp, Clayton Thomas and Jim Zanotti, U.S. Conflict with Iran Congressional Research Service, R48887, updated 18 September 2026.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database, trade registers, Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, generated 20 October 2026 (library copy).
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ Citizen Lab, Hide and Seek: Tracking NSO Group's Pegasus Spyware to Operations in 45 Countries The Citizen Lab, 18 September 2018.
- ↑ Citizen Lab, Hooking Candiru: Another Mercenary Spyware Vendor Comes into Focus The Citizen Lab, 15 July 2021.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024.
- ↑ BBC News, Yemeni Jews brought to Israel in secret mission BBC News, 21 March 2016.
- ↑ Shirsho Dasgupta, Epstein's ties to Arab royals: An offer to tutor crown prince, a gift from Mecca Miami Herald, 8 April 2026.
- ↑ Email to Jeffrey Epstein, "Re:", 11 June 2013, US Department of Justice Epstein files release, Data Set 9, EFTA00962987 (mirror), accessed 21 October 2026.