If someone should be put on a plane without knowing its destination, then jumped out of the plane in a parachute while blindfolded, then had his blindfolds removed after his landing on the ground in Sana'a and looked around, he would immediately realize he is in Yemen. He would not confuse the place with any other on earth, because there is nothing like Yemen in the Arab world or outside it, as it has a unique characteristic architecture. Yemen is one of the strangest and most beautiful places a tourist can visit. It has a recorded history that dates back to periods before Islam, Christianity and Judaism, and has natural features that include more than two thousand kilometres of beaches and mountains that are as high as the ones we have in Lebanon. However, I did not travel to Yemen for tourism, but went with my colleague Ghassan Charbel to interview the President Ali Abdullah Saleh and other Yemeni senior officials and friends with whom we have this profession in common, or whom we met in conferences before, in addition to other friends within the country. I told my friend Hassan Ahmed al-Lawzi, the information minister, that his family name probably qualifies him for a cabinet post in Jordan as well. He told me that he indeed was in Jordan as the [Yemeni] ambassador between his previous and current appointment as the information minister. At the President's office in the (unintentional) Defence Complex, the president's secretary Abdo Burji was present. He did not try to warn us about raising any specific topic or news, and instead added more information to the ones we already had. As for the Brigadier General Ali Hassan al-Shater [Ar. Shater = clever], he is very ‘clever' given his decision-making position and his ‘two posts': the Armed Forces Moral Guidance Department Director and the Chief Editor of a newspaper that publishes the news that his official post provides. I was very pleased to also meet the former Prime Minister Abdul Karim al-Iryiani and to see my friend Dr. Hussein al-Omari whom I have known as the Yemeni ambassador in London, and also to have present with us Dr. Abdul-Wali al-Shamiri, the Yemeni ambassador to Egypt and the Arab League, and also a number of representatives in the Parliament and the Shura Council. I was on my way from and to the hotel when I noticed names such as the Palestine Bakery, and Gaza Warehouse and the Quds [Jerusalem] Mall. Then I found out that one of the largest streets in the capital bear the name of Yasser Arafat (Abu Ammar), while another street was named after Abu Jihad. Palestine is never absent from the minds of the ruling cast or the citizens in Yemen, and the real surprise in this regard was the interest in this cause espoused by Brigadier General Yahya Mohammed Abdullah Saleh. He is the president's eldest's brother's son and his daughter's -Yahya's cousin's - husband. However, before being this or that, and above his security, political and social responsibilities, he is an Arab unionist par excellence, and his primary cause has been and still is the Arabs' most important cause [i.e. Palestine]. I and colleague Ghassan Charbel, along with al-Hayat's resident correspondent colleague Faisal Mkarram visited the Kanaan Foundation for Palestine, which bears the name of Brigadier General Yahya's oldest son, i.e. the President's grandson. The foundation's headquarters are vast and spacious, and their walls are laden with pictures of Palestine and Palestinian slogans, or of scenes of the Lebanese struggle against Israel. We read [there]: the right of return, the return is a right, and: we will no doubt return, and: together for Palestine. We also saw maps of historical Palestine, and images of the martyred freedom fighters and of a woman wrapped in a Lebanese flag, and also an announcement about a press conference by the most senior prisoner of war Samir Kuntar. It should be mentioned here that Brigadier General Yahya is also the chairman of the Yemeni-Lebanese Friendship Association. But “Victory to Palestinians” is not just about a street name or slogans. In practice, Yemen exempts Palestinian imports from all custom duties and taxes. In addition, there are about five to six thousand Palestinians there, including some who emigrated from Kuwait with their families in 1990, and most of them are teachers. At the house of Brigadier General Yahya, I saw a painting of the family's men, including the President Ali Abdullah Saleh, his brother Mohamed, his son Yahya and his grandson Kanaan, Yahya's son. And in the same painting, there was Abu Ammar with them, as though he was a member in their family. Brigadier General Yahya then took me and my two colleagues to a location that had began as a tent bringing together Yemenis expressing their solidarity with Lebanon and its resistance during the 2006 war. Today, the location has become a building that houses an auditorium, where celebrations in solidarity with the Palestinian rights and the Lebanese resistance are held. Once again, the issue does not stop at speeches, but is rather taking a concrete form. The rest of the money collected by the supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh for his election campaign was changed into dollars and then given to the Lebanese and the Palestinians, and the amount was more than two million dollars. From the place where the tent stood in the past, I saw two adjacent hills that the Yemenis call ‘the breasts', and between them, stood the presidential palace; it seems that the President knows how to choose well. And on the other side, I saw a massive Qatari residential and touristic complex. In truth, Yemen can earn more profits from tourism than from oil if peace is to reign as Yemen deserves. Finally, the Brigadier General Yahya has a reputation for being a champion of women's rights, to the extent that Yemeni women are now being admitted to the police academy, working in countering terrorism and confronting fundamentalists. I saw a unit, or a force of Yemeni policewomen at one of the security headquarters, and so it was my lot during the visit to only see Yemeni women either completely veiled or fully armed, although I am a person of good intentions. [email protected]
