Former PA diplomat accuses Abbas of helping with aliya of Yemenite Jews
Abdel Rahim noted in his letter that he had always opposed Abbas’s contacts with “Zionist figures.”
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHUpdated: MARCH 22, 2016 22:26Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks with journalists at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah(photo credit: AFP PHOTO)
A former Palestinian diplomat claimed on Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority helped bring Yemenite Jews to Israel.The claim was made in an open letter to PA President Mahmoud Abbas published by the diplomat, Kheir El-Din Abdel Rahim, who previously served as PLO ambassador to Sudan, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Kenya.Abdel Rahim noted in his letter that he had always opposed Abbas’s contacts with “Zionist figures.”He claimed that the PA’s General Intelligence Force headed by Majed Faraj had played a role in bringing the Yemeni Jews to Israel on instructions from Abbas.Earlier this week, some of the last Jews living in Yemen were brought to Israel in a secret mission in recent days, the Jewish Agency announced. Clandestine activity of the Jewish Agency culminated in the aliya of the 19 Jews, fourteen from the town of Raydah and a family of five from the capital Sanaa.Addressing Abbas, the former Palestinian diplomat wrote: “Your contribution to the emigration of more invaders to our usurped homeland constitutes a dangerous breach of national, religious and moral taboos. Once again, the assistance in bringing more invaders to consolidate the rape of our homeland is an extremely dangerous perversion that requires an investigation and accountability.”Abdel Rahim quoted Abbas as having told him decades ago that he (Abbas) was seeking to persuade some one million Jews to return to the Arab countries which they left by means of his Israeli contacts .“I was one of those who believed your argument and that’s why I worked to get several Arab governments to call on their Jewish citizens, who were displaced by The Jewish Agency, to return to their original countries,” the former diplomat wrote."Now I want to repeat a question I asked 35 years ago, Abu Mazen (Abbas’s nom de guerre): How many Arab Jews accepted complied with your effort and were convinced to leave Palestine and return to the Arab countries?” Abdel Rahim did not provide proof for his claim regarding the contribution of the PA's General Intelligence Force to bringing the Yemeni Jews to Israel earlier this week.