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An Orthodox woman says she is no longer welcome to pray at a New York synagogue because she is trans
(JTA) — When Talia Avrahami was asked to resign from a job teaching in an Orthodox Jewish day school after people there found out she was transgender, she was devastated. But she hoped to be able to turn to her synagogue in Washington Heights, where she had found a home for the last year and a half.
The Shenk Shul is housed at Yeshiva University, the Modern Orthodox flagship in New York City that was locked in battle with students over whether they could form an LBGTQ club. Still, Avrahami had found the previous rabbi to be supportive, and the past president was an ally and a personal friend. What’s more, Avrahami had just helped hire a new rabbi who had promised to handle sensitive topics carefully and with concern for all involved.
So Avrahami was shocked when her outreach to the new rabbi led to her exclusion from the synagogue, with the top Jewish legal authority at Yeshiva University personally telling her that she could no longer pray there.
“Not only were we members, we were very active members,” Avrahami told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We hosted and sponsored kiddushes all the time. We had mazel tovs, [the birth of] our baby [was] posted in the newsletter, we helped run shul events. We were very close with the previous rabbi and rebbetzin and we were close with the current rabbi and rebbetzin.”
Avrahami’s quest to remain a part of the Shenk Shul, which unfolded over the past two months and culminated last week with her successful request for refunded dues, comes at a time of intense tension over the place of LGBTQ people in Modern Orthodox Jewish spaces.
Administrators at Shenk and Y.U. said they are trying to balance Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law, or halacha, and contemporary ideas around inclusion — two values that have sharply collided in Avrahami’s case.
Emails and text messages obtained by JTA show that many people involved in Avrahami’s situation expressed deep pain over her eventual exclusion. They also show that, despite a range of interpretations of Jewish law on LGBTQ issues present even within Modern Orthodoxy, the conclusions of Yeshiva University’s top Jewish legal authority, Rabbi Hershel Schachter, continue to drive practices within the university’s broader community.
“I completely understand (and am certainly perturbed by) the difficulty of the situation. Nobody wants to, chas v’shalom [God forbid], oust anybody, especially somebody who has been an active part of this community,” the synagogue’s president, Shimon Liebling, wrote in a Nov. 17 text message to his predecessor. But, he continued, “When it came down to it, the halachah stated this outcome. As much as we laud ourselves as a welcoming community, halachah cannot be compromised.”
Liebling went on, using the term for a rabbinic decision and referring to a ruling he said the synagogue rabbi had obtained from Schachter: “A psak is a psak.”
The saga began this fall, several weeks after Avrahami lost her short-lived job as an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Magen David Yeshivah in Brooklyn, which she had obtained after earning a master’s degree at Yeshiva University. She had been outed after a video of her in the classroom taken during parent night began circulating on social media.
Around the High Holidays, when Orthodox Jews spend many days in their synagogues, Avrahami learned that people within the Shenk Shul community were talking about her, some complaining about her presence. As she always had, she had spent the holidays praying in the women’s section of the gender-segregated congregation.
Concerned, Avrahami reached out to the new rabbi, Shai Kaminetzky. He confirmed the complaints and told her he wanted further guidance from a more senior rabbi to deal with the complex legal issue before him: Where is a trans woman’s place in the Orthodox synagogue?
For Avrahami and some others who identify as Modern Orthodox, this question has already been resolved. They heed the rulings of the late Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, known as the “Tzitz Eliezer,” an Orthodox legal scholar who died in 2006. He ruled that a trans woman who undergoes gender confirmation surgery is a woman according to Jewish law.
But Waldenberg’s determination is not universally held among Orthodox Jews — and one prominent rabbi who does not accept it is Hershel Schachter. In a 2017 Q&A, Schachter derided trans issues, saying about one trans Jew, “Why did he decide that God made a mistake? He looked so much better as a man than as a woman.” He also suggested that a trans person asking whether to sit in the men’s or women’s section should instead consider attending a Conservative or Reform synagogue, where worshippers are not separated by gender.
“We know we’d have no problem if we were at a Reform or Conservative synagogue when it comes to the acceptance issue. The thing is, that’s not the only thing in our life,” Bradley Avrahami told JTA.
The couple became religiously observant after spending time in Israel and the two now identify as Modern Orthodox. They were married by an Orthodox rabbi in 2018, and when they had their baby via surrogate in 2021, it was important to them that the infant go through a Jewish court to formally convert to Judaism. Avrahami seeks to fulfill the Jewish legal and cultural expectations of Orthodox women, wearing a wig and modest skirts. The pair both adhere to strict Shabbat and kashrut observance laws.
“We didn’t want to be the only family that kept kosher at the synagogue, we didn’t want to be the only family that is shomer Shabbat and shomer chag,” Bradley Avrahami added, referring to strict observance of the Sabbath and holiday restrictions. “It kind of becomes isolating.”
Kaminetzky kept both Talia Avrahami and Eitan Novick, the past president, in the loop about his research, in which he consulted with Schachter. It was a natural place for him to turn: He had studied at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and learned from Schachter there. And while the Shenk Shul includes members not affiliated with Yeshiva University, it is closely entwined with Y.U., occupying space in a university building and hiring rabbis only from a list of options presented by the university.
After speaking with Schachter, Kaminetzky reached a conclusion, according to messages characterizing it by Liebling, the synagogue president.
“He made an halachic decision that Talia isn’t able to sit in the women’s section for the time being,” Liebling wrote Nov. 17 in a message to his predecessor as president, Eitan Novick. But Liebling left the door open for change, writing, “All in all, the ‘official shul policy’ is still being decided.”
He said Kaminetzky had spoken extensively the previous evening with the Avrahamis and had been determined to share his judgment in a way that was respectful “despite the difficult-to hear halachic conclusion.”
Liebling added a parenthetical: “I honestly can’t imagine how difficult it is for them. If I were told I couldn’t sit in the men’s section, I’d be beyond heartbroken and likewise feel displaced.”
Talia Avrahami did indeed feel heartbroken. She told Kaminetzky and others that she felt like she wanted to die, alarming her friends and prompting some of them to reach out to the rabbi. “The concern about Talia’s well-being is likewise the #1 — and only — factor on my mind right now,” Kaminetzky told one of them that night.
The Avrahamis stopped attending the Shenk Shul, but they held out hope for Kaminetzky to change his mind, or for the synagogue to set a firm policy that would permit her participation. Over the next six weeks, though, they heard nothing — a situation that so disappointed Novick that he and his wife also stopped attending. (Kaminetzky’s third child was born during this time.)
“We really feel like this is a pretty significant deviation from the community that we have been a part of for 11 years, which has always been a very accepting place,” Novick said. “This is just not the community that I feel comfortable being a part of if these are the decisions that are being made. It’s not just about the Avrahamis.”
While Avrahami waited for more information, Yeshiva University and Schachter were already in the process of rolling out what they saw as a compromise in a different conflagration over LGBTQ inclusion at the school. Arguing that homosexuality is incompatible with the school’s religious values, Yeshiva University has been fighting not to have to recognize an LGBTQ student group, the YU Pride Alliance, and has even asked the Supreme Court to weigh in after judges in New York ruled against the university. This fall, the school announced that it would launch a separate club endorsed by Schachter, claiming it would represent LGBTQ students “under traditional Orthodox auspices.” (The YU Pride Alliance called the new club “a desperate stunt” by the university.)
Multiple people encouraged Avrahami to make her case directly to Schachter. When she headed to a meeting with the rabbi on Jan. 1, she hoped that putting a face to her name and explaining her situation, including that she had undergone a full medical transition, might widen his thinking about LGBTQ inclusion in Orthodoxy.
The meeting lasted just 15 minutes. And according to Avrahami, who said Schachter told her she was the first trans person he had ever met, it didn’t go well.
In an email to another rabbi who attended the meeting, Menachem Penner, Avrahami said Schachter had called her “unOrthodox” and accused him of “bullying Rabbi Shai Kaminetzky into accepting bigoted psaks.”
Penner, the dean of Yeshiva’s rabbinical school, characterized the conversation differently.
“Rabbi Schachter rules that it is prohibited to undergo transgender surgery and does not accept the opinion of the Tzitz Eliezer post-facto,” he wrote in an email response that day in which he denied that Kaminetzky had been pressured to follow Schachter’s opinion.
“That’s simply a halachic opinion that many hold,” Penner wrote. “He did not call you ‘unorthodox’ — you come across as very sincere in your Judaism and he wished you hatzlacha [success] — but simply said that the surgery was unorthodox, meaning it was not something that is accepted by what he feels is Orthodox Judaism.”
The meeting so angered Avrahami that she asked Liebling to refund her Shenk Shul dues that day, saying that Kaminetzky had kicked her out of the congregation.
“Of course! I’ll send back the money ASAP!” Liebling responded. “I’m so sorry how things are ending up.”
Yeshiva University and Schachter, through a representative, declined to comment, referring questions directly to the Shenk Shul. Kaminetzky directed requests for comment to a representative for the Shenk Shul.
“We have had several conversations with the Avrahamis and we understand their concerns,” the Shenk Shul said in a statement. “It’s important to emphasize that the Avrahamis were not asked to leave the congregation.”
That response doesn’t sit right with Novick, who said blocking Talia Avrahami from praying on both the men’s and women’s sides of the synagogue was tantamount to ejecting her.
“They seem to be trying to have their cake and eat it, too,” he said of the synagogue’s leadership. “They may not be wrong in saying they didn’t tell Talia she was ‘kicked out’ of Shenk, but they’ve created a rule that makes it impossible for her to be a full participant in our community.”
Bradley Avrahami argued that the rabbis who ruled on his wife’s case were short-sighted, giving too little weight to the fact that Jewish law requires Jews to violate other rules in order to save a life. Referring to that principle and pointing to the fact that transgender people are at increased risk of suicide, he said, “It was pikuach nefesh for the person to have the surgery.” His brother, he noted, survived two suicide attempts after coming out as trans.
“They really just don’t understand the harm that they caused when they make these decisions and put out these opinions,” Bradley Avrahami said. “A rabbi should not take a position knowing that that position will cause someone to want to harm themselves.”
Bradley Avrahami said he has received several harassing calls to his work number at Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School, where he is liaison for student enrollment and communications and taught Hebrew in the fall 2022 semester. Talia Avrahami, meanwhile, has struggled to find a job to replace the one she left under pressure in September, although she recently announced that she had landed a temporary position.
For now, they are attending another synagogue in Washington Heights, though Talia says she and her husband would consider returning to Shenk Shul if she were invited back and permitted to participate.
So far, there are no signs of that happening. On Jan. 1, after her meeting with Schachter, Talia sent a WhatsApp message to Kaminetzky.
“We elected you because you said you would stand up for LGBT people, not kick us out of shul,” she wrote.
The message went unanswered.
—
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Venezuelan Jewish Leader Expresses Hope for Democratic Future After US Captures Maduro
A person holds up an image depicting Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, as people celebrate after the US struck Venezuela and captured its President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, in Santiago, Chile. Jan. 3, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Pablo Sanhueza
A Venezuelan Jewish leader expressed renewed hope for a return to democracy after President Nicolás Maduro’s capture in a US operation, seeing it as a potential turning point following years of authoritarian rule and economic turmoil.
Miguel Truzman, president of the Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela — the umbrella organization for Venezuelan Jews — described the moment as being met with “faith, hope, and optimism” for Venezuelan families and the nation’s future.
“The American military’s operations across different parts of the country caught us by surprise. It’s truly an extraordinary moment,” Truzman told Spain-based Radio Sefarad in an interview earlier this week.
“Thanks to the careful execution of the operation, the physical safety of most Venezuelans was not at risk,” he said.
“We are now closely following these remarkable events in Venezuela and hope for stability as the country enters a new year shaped by these changes. We face the future with faith, hope, and optimism — for both families and the nation,” Truzman continued.
On Saturday night, the US launched a major military operation in Venezuela that struck state infrastructure and captured long-serving President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores — in Washington’s most direct intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
Shortly afterward, Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodríguez, 56, was formally sworn in as the country’s interim president. She demanded the “immediate release” of Maduro and his wife, arguing that the arrests were made under false pretenses as part of a broader effort to impose regime change and seize the country’s natural resources
“The country is gradually returning to normal — synagogues, for example, have reopened their doors for daily services,” Truzman said during his interview.
“Venezuela is entering a new chapter of governance. For our community, the most important focus is preserving our daily Jewish life, fostering connections with other religious communities, and safeguarding the well-being of our members,” he continued.
“The Jewish community of Venezuela is a Zionist community that strongly supports the State of Israel as a sovereign nation, with a legitimate right to exist, defend itself, and maintain its territorial integrity,” Truzman said.
On Monday, Maduro and his wife appeared in US federal court in New York City, pleaded not guilty to drug‑trafficking and other criminal charges, and were scheduled to return for their next hearing on March 17.
Accused of overseeing a cocaine‑trafficking network that worked with several violent groups across Latin America, Maduro faces criminal charges including narco‑terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.
Simy Blomer Benchimol, a Venezuelan living in Spain, also expressed hope that the US intervention could open the door to democracy after years of authoritarian rule.
“I believe it’s a price worth paying if it means we can live in peace,” Benchimol told Radio Sefarad in an interview earlier this week.
“No one is scared — in fact, people are feeling hopeful,” she said. “After 26 years, even if progress is slow, I’m happy to see change beginning. No one went out to defend the regime.”
“This had to be done. We’ve fought for years in every possible way — even holding completely fair elections — and they stole everything from us,” Benchimol continued. “There was no other way to remove this government — this isn’t a kidnapping, but the arrest of someone who has caused immense harm to the country and the world.”
Many international observers and US allies have maintained that the Venezuelan opposition movement was cheated of victory in the 2024 election.
Venezuela’s Jewish community, once one of Latin America’s largest, has declined to roughly 3,000 – 5,000 people today, mostly in Caracas.
Maduro has a long history of antisemitic rhetoric, falsely claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t an “authentic Jew,” accusing Israel of seeking to dominate Central Asia and the Middle East and to control the US, and repeatedly praising Hamas and other terrorist groups as “freedom fighters.”
The Venezuelan leader has also previously claimed that “Zionists” were facilitating Venezuela’s takeover as the United States intensified its recent military campaign targeting drug trafficking and “narco-terrorist” networks near the country.
“There are those who want to hand this country over to the devils — you know who, right? The far-right Zionists want to hand this country over to the devils,” Maduro said during a televised speech in November.
In 2024, Maduro also blamed “international Zionism” for the large-scale anti-government protests that erupted across the country following the presidential elections, in which he claimed victory amid widespread claims of fraud.
Venezuela cut diplomatic ties with Israel in 2009 under then-President Hugo Chávez, and the two countries have had no formal relations since then.
Meanwhile, under Maduro, Venezuela has strengthened its ties with Iran, becoming an increasingly important financial and operational base for the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, the Iranian regime’s chief proxy force in the Middle East.
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MPs Say Police Chief in UK Should Be Fired After Accused of ‘Covering Up’ Threat to Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans
WMP Chief Constable Craig Guildford speaking before the Home Affairs Committee on Jan. 6, 2026. Photo: Screenshot
Jewish groups and several members of Parliament in the United Kingdom are calling for the chief constable of the West Midlands Police (WMP) to lose his job after the police force was accused on Tuesday of hiding evidence about anti-Israel locals who were threatening violence against fans of the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv.
WMP Chief Constable Craig Guildford appeared before the Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday for a second round of questioning regarding the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, whom police claimed were “uniquely violent,” from attending a Europa League soccer match against Aston Villa in Birmingham on Nov. 6 last year.
Documents revealed on Tuesday showed that the police’s initial public safety concerns surrounding the soccer match were not because of behavior displayed by Maccabi fans, but due to “high confidence intelligence” that police received on Sept. 5 about locals in the predominantly Muslim area of West Midlands who wanted to “arm” themselves” against Maccabi fans because they are from Israel. Birmingham City Council Leader John Cotton told the committee on Tuesday that police did not share with him the intelligence they received and their honest reasoning for banning Israeli fans.
Conservative MP Karen Bradley, who chaired the committee, accused the police force of “scraping” to justify their ban against Israeli soccer fans from attending the game on Nov. 6. She told WMP officials on Tuesday: “It feels to us like you felt you needed to justify banning these fans and that scraping was done to find a reason.”
In a post on X, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Guildford’s position was now “untenable.”
“West Midlands police capitulated to Islamists and then collaborated with them to cover it up,” she said. “They knew extremists were planning to attack Jews for going to a football match, and their response was to blame and remove Jewish people instead. They presented an inversion of reality and misled a parliamentary committee. We have had enough of this in Britain. The British police serve the British public, not local sectarian interests.”
Tory MP Nick Timothy, who is an Aston Villa fan and former Home Office special adviser, also called for Guildford to be fired on Tuesday. “What was left of the credibility of West Midlands police has been destroyed” following the evidence presented to the committee, he wrote on X.
“We learned earlier that their initial reason for banning Israelis from Villa Park was the danger *to* away fans *from* ‘armed’ locals. But to justify the ban they portrayed the Israelis as ‘uniquely violent’ and military-trained,” he explained. “And when the Home Affairs Select Committee asked why the vital information about the danger *to* Israelis was kept secret, the chief constable ludicrously said it was because he had not been asked for it. “
“He is too arrogant to resign,” the MP added about Guilford. “The home secretary has the power to remove him under Section 40 of the Police Act 1996. She should use it.”
Timothy further criticized the police force, saying, “We basically had the mob saying we’re not prepared to have Israelis come to the city we live in and the police decided to appease the mob — and we all know where appeasement ends.” He also accused WMP of “lying” repeatedly in an effort to explain their ban against Maccabi fans and failing to take on “extreme elements in the communities they are supposed to police.”
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said Tuesday’s committee hearing was “yet another disgraceful performance from West Midlands police.” He added that the meeting clearly showed “the threat of armed Islamist thugs was a key consideration in the force’s decision to ban Israeli fans from attending the match, but this crucial detail was held back.”
“The chief constable’s pathetic excuse that he wasn’t asked is just the latest attempt to cover up a farce of his own making,” the MP added. “His position is untenable. If he doesn’t resign, then the home secretary must use her powers to sack him, and even more importantly explain exactly what she knew and when.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage told reporters that Guildford “needs to go today” during a press conference on Wednesday to announce the party’s 2028 mayoral candidate for London.
“It was monstrous that the impression was given that the Jewish-Israeli fans would be violent, when the truth is there were serious threats of violence against them, and huge degrees of misinformation, fed in by local elected politicians in the West Midlands with the assistance of one or two mosques, who do not have good reputations,” Farage said. “I thought the performance yesterday in front of the Commons committee was absolutely abject, so he needs to go first.”
The Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies of British Jews also called for Guildford to lose his job in a joint statement issued on Tuesday.
“It seems that the police reached a decision first, and then searched for evidence to justify it, apparently influenced by the threat posed by local extremists,” they said. “The police excluded (having initially included) any assessment of the significant risk to the Jewish community, and claimed to have consulted the local community in advance of the decision, which they had not.”
“In light of these events,” the Jewish groups continued, “significant harm has been done to the confidence of the Jewish community in the police. Action must be taken to ensure that these failures do not recur and to restore trust. Accountability matters. Considering the chief constable’s role in these events, a change of leadership is essential. If the chief constable does not step aside, responsibility lies with central government to intervene.”
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) also called on Guildford to step down.
“We believe Chief Constable Craig Guildford has failed to uphold the standards of neutrality and responsibility required of his office,” CAM Director of European Affairs Shannon Seban wrote in a letter to UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. “We therefore respectfully call for his resignation. Should he refuse, decisive action by the home secretary is warranted.”
Guildford insisted there “wasn’t any political interference” in the decision to ban Maccabi fans from the soccer match in November. He said he was “very much sorry,” adding, “I do regret the focus that this has placed on our local Jewish community.”
Mike O’Hara, assistant chief constable of West Midlands police, also insisted there was “no conspiracy” behind the ban when speaking to the parliamentary committee on Tuesday. “There was a lot of intelligence that people would actively seek out Maccabi fans and seek violence towards them. There was a bubbling situation locally,” he said.
The police told the committee they were informed by senior Dutch officers that Maccabi fans were responsible for violence during a match against Ajax in Amsterdam in November 2024, but Dutch authorities have denied those claims.
The Embassy of Israel in the United Kingdom said on Wednesday that the police force’s initial portrayal of Israeli soccer fans as violent “was a gross mischaracterization that served the needs of those actively inciting against an Israeli team.”
“This framing diverted attention away from credible intelligence warnings regarding extremist elements preparing to target Israeli and Jewish Maccabi supporters, and instead placed blame on the very community that was facing the threat,” the embassy added in a statement shared on X. “The decision to obscure these assessments, and to allow a misleading narrative to take hold, raises serious questions. These acts by law enforcement institutions undermine real security risks, and even encourages a climate in which hostility towards Israeli and Jewish communities can be normalized under the rule of law. These matters require full accountability.”
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Yemen Separatist Leader Fails to Attend Crisis Talks as Saudi-UAE Rift Deepens
A member of the Giants Forces mans a machine gun on a patrol truck amid the southern crisis in Aden, Yemen, Jan. 7, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Fawaz Salman
The leader of Yemen‘s southern separatists failed to board a flight to Riyadh for crisis talks on Wednesday and his fate was unclear, clouding efforts to contain a military escalation that has caused a major rift between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
A fast-moving crisis in Yemen has ignited a feud between the two most powerful countries in the oil-rich Gulf and fractured a coalition headed by Yemen‘s internationally recognized government that is fighting the Iran-backed Houthis.
After Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s unexplained absence from the Riyadh talks, his Southern Transitional Council said he was overseeing military and security operations in the southern port city of Aden. Reuters could not verify his whereabouts.
Underscoring the tensions, Yemen‘s Saudi-backed presidential council expelled Zubaidi and accused him of treason.
‘THREAT TO BOMB ADEN’
Senior STC official Amr Al Beidh said Aden was still under the group’s control. Beidh said Saudi Arabia told Zubaidi it would bomb Aden if he did not attend the talks.
Zubaidi did not travel to Riyadh for the meeting because he did not want to leave a security vacuum in the port city, said Beidh, speaking from Abu Dhabi in an online briefing. There was no immediate reaction from Saudi Arabia to Beidh’s comments.
Asked about concerns of a split within the separatist group, Beidh said: “We don’t have problems in STC regarding our people. We understand and know and trust our people.”
Another senior STC official said that he and other members of a delegation had arrived in the Saudi capital and talks would go ahead. Hours earlier, the group had said it had lost contact with its delegation.
“I have arrived in Riyadh accompanied by colleagues from Aden, and in a positive atmosphere, we will begin a series of meetings to prepare for a South-South dialogue under the sponsorship of our brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Mohammad Al Ghaithi said in a post on X.
It was unclear who would lead the STC in those talks.
Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces, meanwhile, were advancing towards Aden, Saudi state television reported without elaborating.
The Saudi coalition also said it carried out limited pre-emptive airstrikes in the southern province of al-Dhalea, Zubaidi’s birthplace, after monitoring the movements of armed forces that had left their camps.
Local sources and sources within the STC reported more than 15 strikes in the province.
LATEST FIGHTING PUTS SAUDI, UAE ON OPPOSITE SIDES
The dramatic developments dashed hopes for swift resolution of the recent turmoil in Yemen‘s south and an end to fighting that erupted last month between the STC, backed by the UAE, and Yemen‘s Saudi-backed internationally recognized government.
The UAE has pursued an assertive foreign policy and carved its own sphere of influence across the Middle East and Africa, a strategy in the spotlight after its rare military escalation with Saudi Arabia in Yemen.
The country, a regional business and trade hub, has used alliances with states or proxies and financial support mainly to counter what it views as the destabilizing, existential threat of political Islam.
Zubaidi had been due to travel to Saudi Arabia days after Yemen‘s government said it had asked Riyadh to host a forum on the southern issue.
But on Wednesday, the Saudi-backed presidential council stripped Zubaidi of his membership and referred him to the public prosecutor on charges including high treason, Yemen state news agency SABA said.
The decision, issued by presidential council chairman Rashad al-Alimi, accused Zubaidi of inciting armed rebellion, attacking constitutional authorities and committing abuses against civilians in southern Yemen.
The council has also dismissed Aden Governor Ahmed Lamlas, referred him for investigation, and appointed Abdulrahman al‑Yafie as his replacement, SABA reported.
Security forces announced the imposition of a curfew across all districts of Aden, from 9 pm until 6 am local time, SABA said.
Turki al-Maliki, the spokesperson of the Saudi-backed coalition, said there were indications that Zubaidi had moved large forces and that the coalition had asked the vice president of the STC, Abdulrahman al-Mahrami, known as Abu Zara’a, to impose security. Abu Zara’a had met the Saudi defence minister in Riyadh on Jan. 5.
LONG CIVIL WAR
Saudi Arabia and the UAE first intervened in Yemen more than a decade ago after the Houthis, an internationally designated terrorist group, seized the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in 2014.
The UAE joined the Saudi-backed coalition the following year in support of the internationally recognized government.
The Southern Transitional Council, set up in 2017 with UAE backing, ultimately joined the government coalition.
For years, it has been part of that administration, which controls southern and eastern Yemen and is backed by Gulf states.
But last month STC forces suddenly seized swathes of territory, shifting the delicate balance of power and pitting Saudi Arabia against the UAE.
The UAE pulled its forces out of Yemen last month under pressure from Saudi Arabia, which saw the southern advance on its borders as a threat to its national security. The UAE has called for de-escalation in Yemen since.