Alwaght- The Israeli regime has concluded a so-called ‘historic mission’ under which the final group of Jewish Yemenis immigrated to occupied Palestine as Yemen continues to bear the brunt of a Saudi-led war.
17 Jewish Yemenis arrived in Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport on Sunday. The Jewish Agency oversaw the covert operation in coordination with the U.S State Department, according to a report by the Israeli daily Haaretz.
This concludes an operation that began in 1949 with over 51,000 Yemeni Jews having immigrated under the Israeli regime.
Around 200 Yemeni Jews have been airlifted to occupied Palestine in secret over the past few years in light of the civil war and the Saudi-led aggression.
Jewish Agency Spokesman Yigal Palmor told Haaretz that 12 individuals came from the city of Raydah and the other five from Sanaa. The members of the group are the last Jews in Yemen who have expressed the desire to immigrate to the occupied territories in light of the raging war in Yemen. The remaining 50 chose to stay in Yemen, mostly Sana’a where they live in a compound near the U.S embassy.
More than 51,000 Yemenite Jews have been brought to live on Palestinian land that has been occupied since 1948. The majority of the community—nearly 50,000 individuals in total— were brought in 1949 and 1950 in what came to be known as Operation Magic Carpet.
“This is a highly significant moment in the history of Israel and of aliyah,” said Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky in a statement.
“From Operation Magic Carpet in 1949 until the present day, The Jewish Agency has helped bring Yemenite Jewry home to Israel. Today we bring that historic mission to a close.”
Ironically, what Sharansky called home is the home of Palestinians whose lands were snatched away from them for the Zionist Jews of the world. Under western support, the indigenous people of Palestine were evicted from their homes and were deprived of their lands to make room for the Jews who were imported from different countries around the globe.
The immigration to the Israeli-occupied land—known as Aliyah or “the act of going up”—referring to Jerusalem or al-Quds, is one of the basic tenets of Zionism. The Israeli Law of Return gives Jews and their descendants guaranteed rights to residency and citizenship. Palestinian refugees, who have been forced to live in exile as a result of the Israeli occupation, on the other hand, have been denied the right of return and continue to live in the diaspora while Jews retain the claim to their lands.
