Yemen’s Policy Towards Palestine Israel Issue: A Stance of Resistance and Solidarity

Amara Malik

Yemen is one of the few Arab nations that has always backed the Palestinian cause and never forged diplomatic ties with Israel. Yemen’s perspective on the Israel-Palestine issue is shaped by its domestic circumstances as well as its historical, religious, and political ties to the region.

Yemen has always been a part of the Islamic and Arab worlds, and it shares religious and cultural links with the Palestinian people. There is a substantial Jewish community in Yemen as well; these individuals have historically been subjected to prejudice and persecution and have primarily emigrated to Israel or other nations. Yemen dispatched troops to fight with the Arab forces against the newly founded state of Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, which is when Yemen first became involved in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Yemen broke up diplomatic ties with the US after the 1967 Six-Day War, citing “Washington’s blind support to Israel against the Arab cause in Palestine” and denouncing Israel for occupying Palestinian territory.

With the majority of Zaydi Shiites in the north and a minority of Sunnis in the south, Yemen is largely a Muslim country. The Zaydi Shiites of Yemen sometimes referred to as Houthis, are closely aligned with Iran, the primary adversary of Israel in the area and a fervent backer of Palestinian resistance organizations like Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The Sunnis of Yemen, on the other hand, have a more complicated and varied relationship with the Israel-Palestine conflict. While some of them support the Muslim Brotherhood, which has strong ties to Hamas, others are sympathetic to Saudi Arabia, which has been quietly pursuing normalization with Israel.

Since the Houthis took control of Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa in 2014 and overthrew President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s internationally recognized administration, the country has been engulfed in a civil war. The confrontation has intensified into a regional proxy war, with Iran arming and advising the Houthis while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates spearhead a military alliance in support of the Hadi administration. Millions of Yemenis are experiencing starvation, illness, and relocation as a result of the war’s humanitarian crisis. Because many factions in the war have distinct goals and interests, the fighting has also widened the rifts within the Yemeni population.

These political, religious, and historical aspects may be seen in Yemen’s current stance on the Israel-Palestine issue. In October 2023, Yemen’s warring factions united for the first time in years to denounce Israel’s assault against the Palestinians in Gaza and to demonstrate support for the Palestinian cause. In particular, the Houthis threatened to launch hostilities against Israel if the US became actively involved in the fight. In addition, the Houthis said that they had coordinated multiple missile and drone assaults on Israel with the “axis of jihad and resistance,” which consists of Islamic Jihad, Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. However, Israel rejected these accusations as propaganda since they were not corroborated by other reliable sources.

Regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict, Yemen’s stance might be interpreted as an attempt to both exert its power and position in the area and deflect attention from its issues and difficulties. With several of its Arab neighbors, like Sudan, Bahrain, and Morocco, normalizing their ties with Israel as a result of the US-brokered Abraham Accords, Yemen’s approach may also be understood as a reaction to the shifting dynamics in the Middle East. As the international world has been unable to resolve the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen and put an end to the war, it is also possible to see Yemen’s policies as a challenge. Yemen’s stance may also be interpreted as an expression of its steadfast and abiding solidarity with the Palestinian people, who fight for independence, justice, and dignity together.

Researcher, PolicyEast.