Scores of innocent children died last Thursday in a senseless attack on a school bus in Yemen. On August 9, an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels hit a bus driving in the busy Dahyan market in Majz District of Saada province, a Houthi stronghold that lies along the border with Saudi Arabia. The majority of victims are children aged 10 to 13 who were travelling together on the bus. Al Masirah TV aired dramatic images of wounded children, their clothes and school bags covered with blood, as they lay on hospital stretchers. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that it’s team at an ICRC supported hospital in Saada received the bodies of 29 children, all under the age of 15. It also received 48 wounded people, including 30 children.
Just the week before, many people were killed in explosions on a hospital and fish market in Al Hudaydah City. Right before that, a water station and sanitation center–both essential in providing families with access to clean water and preventing another outbreak of cholera–were attacked and seriously damaged. But, like most of the many attacks on civilians that have transpired throughout this protracted conflict–which, by the way, constitute war crimes in violation of international humanitarian law–these, too, soon became yesterday’s news … just another day, just another death in Yemen. Is the U.S. government going to do the same thing with the senseless attack on a school bus filled with kids? Attacks against hospitals, schools and essential infrastructure are commonplace in this brutal war.
Yemen is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with 22 million people, comprising 75 percent of the population, requiring some form of humanitarian assistance and protection. Since 2015, more than 28,000 Yemenis have been killed or injured. Thousands more civilians have died from preventable causes linked to the conflict. The numbers are staggering: 8.4 million Yemenis are suffering from acute hunger; nearly 60 percent of the population doesn’t have access to health care or safe water. “Nowhere else in the world are more people suffering as much as in Yemen,” said Lise Grande, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen. “At least one child is dying every 10 minutes from causes linked to war.” 1 child every 10 minutes! As UNICEF’s Executive Director Henrietta Fore aptly stated, “How many more children will suffer or die before those who can act, do by putting a stop to this scourge?”
Thursday’s unconscionable attack must be a turning point. We must show our solidarity with the people of Yemen. Not just by standing with them, but by acting on their behalf. We must pressure the U.S. government to disengage from the conflict in Yemen and stop assisting its allies as they continue to wreak havoc on the civilian population. United States Armed Forces have been involved in hostilities between Saudi-led forces and the Houthi-Saleh alliance throughout the war, including through assisting Saudi and United Arab Emirates (UAE) warplanes conducting aerial bombings in Yemen with electing targets and providing mid-air refueling services to such warplanes, amounting to millions of pounds of jet fuel delivered during thousands of Saudi and UAE airstrikes.
We at Jewish World Watch urge you to contact your Senators and Representatives and tell them to introduce legislation curtailing assistance to the Saudi- and UAE-led coalition’s military campaign in Yemen.
Recent attempts to do so have been quashed. Most notably, S.J. Res. 54, sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders, was a joint resolution directing the president to withdraw U.S. armed forces from participating in the Saudi-led coalition’s hostilities in Yemen, unless authorized by Congress. Although it was removed from consideration or “tabled,” by the Senate, the vote generated much debate on the Senate floor. The debate raised awareness across the United States of U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led coalition’s ongoing violations of humanitarian law in Yemen. It also underscored growing congressional concerns with the Yemen conflict, and forced senators to take a public position on the issue, making it easier to hold them politically accountable.
Please beseech your Senators and Representatives to not give up on the Yemeni people. The more legislation they introduce, the more debate it will generate, ensuring that people keep apprised of what the Saudi-led coalition is doing and how the U.S. government is supporting those actions. This will exert much-needed pressure on the Trump administration to use its influence to facilitate diplomatic efforts to bring the conflict, and its resulting humanitarian catastrophe, to an end; or, at least to find ways to reduce U.S. involvement in response to the public outcry. Frequent Congressional debate on the issue will also send a message to Saudi Arabia and the UAE that their actions in Yemen are becoming increasingly difficult to justify to U.S. lawmakers, and that unconditional U.S. backing to exploit Yemen’s conflict for their individual state interests is not a sure thing.
Please call the congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Ask to be connected to your representative or senator and say:
My name is __________ and I live in ____________. I’m dismayed by the recent attacks on innocent civilians in Yemen, perpetrated by the Saudi- and United Arab Emirates-led coalition, which continues to receive weapons, fuel, and targeting assistance from the U.S. I urge you to speak out publicly against the ongoing crisis and warn our allies that Congress will introduce legislation to end U.S. assistance for their campaign as long as they continue to bomb civilian targets and infrastructure, in violation of international humanitarian law.