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Following are excerpts from a TV interview with Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem, the head of the Jewish community in Yemen, which aired on Yemen Today TV (via the Internet) on January 22, 2013.
TV host Rahma Hajira: The Jewish community has its own social customs and traditions, and its own political circumstances. A few days ago, we wanted to hold an interview with Rabbi Yahya Youssuf, and we were prevented from doing so, or to be more precise, the Interior Ministry informed us that we had to coordinate the interview with the national security and political security agencies.
Then, when we went to Tourist City to meet the rabbi, we were surprised to learn that we had to obtain the permission of the military intelligence as well.
[…]
When did you all move from Saada to Tourist City?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: In 2007.
TV host Rahma Hajira: Why?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: Because of the threats we were getting from the Houthis in Al-Salem.
TV host Rahma Hajira: You were forced to leave. What was the reason for the threats?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: They had no justification for doing this. They took our homes, our lands, and our cars. They even took my historical library.
TV host Rahma Hajira: They plundered it all?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: That's right.
TV host Rahma Hajira: What makes you so sure that it was the Houthis?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: It was the Houthis who threatened us.
TV host Rahma Hajira: What about those who plundered…
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: It was the same people.
[…]
First of all, it is our duty to express our thanks and esteem to Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president. He brought us here from Saada, and provided us with living quarters, food, and a stipend, and took care of all our needs.
TV host Rahma Hajira: Did you go to him to complain…
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: Yes, we did, and he did what was required of him.
TV host Rahma Hajira: Did the measures – which I believe are illegal – that we had to undergo in order to interview you exist in the days of President Ali Abdullah Saleh?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: All interviews with me must be coordinated with the Interior Ministry. They have to approve them.
TV host Rahma Hajira: Both in the days of President Saleh and today?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: Yes.
TV host Rahma Hajira: Why do you accept this? You are a Yemeni Jew, and you have your rights.
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: True, it is my right, but the interviews are held through the Interior Ministry because they are responsible for us. We are Yemenis, and we represent the country, so they need to give their approval.
TV host Rahma Hajira: But nobody else I interview needs to get the approval of the Interior Ministry. Why you? Is this political persecution?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: We agree to this…You need to obtain permission from the Interior Ministry… We take care to preserve the good name of the country, and of its top officials and sheiks, just as one preserves one's own eyesight.
TV host Rahma Hajira: So they are concerned that you might say things that harm the state and government.
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: It is their right…
TV host Rahma Hajira: No, they don't have such a right.
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: They have the right to know what we are going to say…
TV host Rahma Hajira: No, they don't.
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: We take care to preserve the good name of the country, and of its top officials and sheiks, just as one preserves one's own eyesight.
TV host Rahma Hajira: Mr. Yahya, they do not have the right. People took to the streets to demonstrate for change. They said a great many things against the leaders and the sheiks. They even said things that were morally unacceptable. There was a lot of negative criticism. This change is what brought this minister to power. So how can they have the right to prevent you from speaking? I can conduct an interview with anybody on the street, and nobody has the right to stop me. I have never had to get permission from the Interior Ministry to interview anyone.
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: Look, I am a Yemeni, and I have the right to say whatever I like, and nobody can prevent me. It is my right.
[…]
TV host Rahma Hajira: I noticed that your sidelocks are gone. They were there until recently. When and why did you cut them?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: I cut them off because sometimes I was harassed in the streets or the market by ignorant uneducated Muslims.
[…]
TV host Rahma Hajira: When did you cut them off?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: About two years ago, because of the problems. Judaism is not determined by the length of one's sidelocks. It is in one's heart.
TV host Rahma Hajira: You're right. Judaism is in one's heart.
[…]
Is there a separate school for the Jewish community?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: No, I am opposed to this. When we arrived from Saada, they offered us a school for Jews within Tourist City. I said: Under no circumstances.
TV host Rahma Hajira: Why not?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: I do not want our children to be segregated. If we have a separate school for Jews and a separate school for Muslims, we will sow discrimination in the hearts of our children.
[…]
In the Amran governorate, there is a separate school for the Jews, because there are many backward, uneducated people there, both Jews and Muslims.
TV host Rahma Hajira: Yes, there was a lot of harassment there.
[…]
How many Muslim men have married Jewish women?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: There are Jewish women in Rida who married Muslims.
TV host Rahma Hajira: Like the case of Nina?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: That's right.
TV host Rahma Hajira: What happened to her? Was she really kidnapped?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: No. That woman and other girls converted to Islam of their own free will.
[…]
TV host Rahma Hajira: Another question, how many Muslim women have married Jewish men?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: There is no such thing.
TV host Rahma Hajira: Why not?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: It doesn't happen.
[…]
TV host Rahma Hajira: At what age do you marry off [your daughters]?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: At 17 or 18.
TV host Rahma Hajira: What happens if somebody younger gets married?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: That doesn't happen.
TV host Rahma Hajira: You are against child marriage?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: Yes. When she reaches the age of 18, the law permits her to marry, and then she knows her rights and duties.
[…]
We have had some problems from Finance Minister Sakhr Al-Wajeh, and we pray to God that He will not place him in charge – not over the Muslims, not over the Jews, and not over the Christians…
TV host Rahma Hajira: Why are you so mad at him?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: He has made trouble for us. At the end of the year, they wanted to banish us from Tourist City.
TV host Rahma Hajira: Tell me about your problems with Finance Minister Sakhr Al-Wajeh.
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: At the beginning of the year, he said that the Finance Ministry cannot continue to lease Tourist City for this purpose, and that we would have to return to our homes…
TV host Rahma Hajira: Will they rebuild your homes?
Rabbi Yahya Youssuf Salem: Our homes were razed to the ground, but he doesn't know that. Nobody should make decisions without checking the situation first.
[…]
TV host Rahma Hajira: I join you in saying to Sakhr Al-Wajeh: You are a human rights activist, and therefore, you should cooperate with the Jewish community, which has suffered harsh treatment at the hand of backward extremists.
[…]
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