An Egyptian newspaper revealed that the Iranian-affiliated rebels arrested Jews in the Imran province • The goal: to force the detainees to give up their property and leave the country

• The Houthi rebels in Yemen // Photo: AP

The group of Houthi rebels in Yemen arrested Jews in the province of Imran, northwest of the capital Sanaa, as part of fundraising efforts and their deportation in parallel with the looting of various parties and groups, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masrion revealed today (Tuesday).

According to the report, local sources stated that in practice the Houthis concentrated the rest of the Jews in the country (according to various estimates, less than 20 people), and imprisoned them because of their religion that they were under pressure to leave Yemen.

In effect, they allegedly forced the Jews to sign an undertaking to sell their homes, lands and property to the Houthi leaders at symbolic prices and then leave the country. The Houthis do not bother to hide their antisemitic ideology, like other organizations in the Middle East. The organization's logo is a green and red square that reads "God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse to the Jews, victory to Islam."

According to the report, the Houthis persecuted the few Jews still left in Yemen by cutting off basic necessities such as water and electricity and even prevented them from purchasing food. To this end, the rebel group was aided by measures similar to those it takes against non-Shiite Yemenis and Yemenis from other religions.

Most of Yemen's Jewish population left the country shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel. Most of the remaining also left Yemen in the decades after the establishment of Israel, leaving only a handful of Jews who refused to leave. In the early 1990s, about 1,500 Jews lived in a country in Southwest Asia.

In December last year, we revealed in "Israel Today" the enormous scope of the property estimate left behind by Arab and Iranian Jews after they were deported from their countries and immigrated to Israel with the establishment of the state (about $ 150 billion, in a conservative estimate without capitalization).

From the data that can be revealed in this framework, it should be noted that the breakdown by state shows that the value of the assets left behind by the Jews in Yemen is estimated at about $ 2.6 billion and in Eden about $ 700 million.