Tuesday, June 15, 2004

With or without my children

Following the strange Satmar-Yemenite saga of last week, the Yemenite hero of the 2003 film "In Satmar Custody," Yahia Jaradi, has appeared before the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee to give his expert testimony. He himself, apparently, is still struggling to bring some of his children from Satmar care in New York to Israel, although in his case, his children were taken away by social workers after the death of one of his daughters.
According to The Jerusalem Post, at the end of the meeting, "The committee decided that efforts should be made to bring the 300 Jews remaining in Yemen here before the Satmars lure them to the US and UK."
While I clearly sympathise with Israel's stand, there's still something slightly surreal about Israel struggling to rescue Jews from other Jews rather than from hostile and anti-Semitic authorities.

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