Israeli military recruits Yemeni Jews to strengthen intelligence efforts against Houthis

The Israeli military intelligence has enlisted several dozen Yemenite Jews and their descendants from Yemen into its ranks.

This tactic employed by the military was published in the Israeli media, as Caliber.Az reports, which provided further explanation for this practice. According to the article, Israel is enlisting the help of indigenous Yemenis because of language barriers amid the growing concerns about the Houthi movement. The Yemeni Arabic dialect significantly differs from others in the Arabic language and has posed a serious linguistic barrier for Israeli intelligence.

Most of Israel's neighbours, which are all Arabic nations, speak a similiar dialect but Yemen presents a different linguistic landscape. As the article highlights, this unfamiliarity makes it difficult to understand Yemeni speech and challenging for someone from Israel's neighbourhoods were Arabic is widely spoken and to convincingly impersonate a Yemeni Arabic speaker.

The recruits include both recent immigrants from Yemen and individuals raised in Yemeni households inside Israel. According to Israeli media, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has long neglected the Houthis and did therefore not invest in adequately training intelligence officers in this dialect which is why this surge in demand for Yemeni repatriats exists. 

As Caliber.Az clarifies, Yemenite Jews in Israel are individuals from the Yemenite Jewish communities, including both immigrants and their descendants, who currently live in Israel. While Yemen had a large Jewish community in the early ages, according to the Jewish Virtual Library, the near-complete emigration of the Yemenite Jewish community, totaling nearly 50,000 individuals, took place between June 1949 and September 1950 during Operation "Magic Carpet" when hostilities in the region grew.

For many years, Jews were the sole indigenous religious minority in Yemen, alongside a small number of Christians, Hindus, and Baha’is. The small Jewish community that remains in northern Yemen is permitted to practice Judaism but is prohibited from serving in the military or hold political office. 

By Nazrin Sadigova