Ha’aretz reports:

Na’ama Al-Nahari, a woman of Yemenite origin, and five of her 12 children were smuggled out of the ultra-Orthodox township of Monsey, N.Y., on Tuesday and flown to Israel on El Al, in a Jewish Agency covert operation that had been in the works for a few months.

According to the plan, a larger number of Yemenites living in Monsey were to be smuggled to Israel, but Satmar Hasidim in the township discovered the preparations and prevented their departure.

The Jewish Agency discovered that a few Yemenite families wanted to leave Monsey and immigrate to Israel, but an attempt to smuggle out a few families three months ago was foiled after the hasidim learned of the plan. A Jewish Agency source said efforts to bring the Yemenites to Israel will continue.

Best quote from the JPost version:

“The Satmar promised to take them to a ‘golden land,’ but when they got here they found themselves in more of a Yiddish-speaking shtetl.”

Satmars don’t forget, are opposed to Zionism.

Then, Yemini officials discover that it’s citizens were “lured” in a “secret operation” and “smuggled” from New York to the Jewish State, so it is kicking in with an investigation. According to press reports, Yemen has some pretty active smuggling on it’s own borders, so they must know what they are talking about.

And in a classic case of Israeli bureaucracy, the new Olim got slapped with a $250 fine for overweight baggage!