Fake Advocacy; How the Houthis Fought Palestinian Charitable Institutions in Yemen?
The Houthi Movement’s announcement of strong support for the Palestinian cause prompts the Yemeni people to remember the period following the group’s control of the capital, Sana’a, in 2014, and its members looting Yemeni and Palestinian charitable institutions that provide support for the just cause.
Months after the coup against the legitimate authority in Yemen, the Houthis stormed and looted the Al-Quds Foundation – Yemen Branch, the Al-Aqsa Charity in Sana’a, and their branches in the governorates under the control of the movement, as well as the headquarters of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas.
In April 2015, Houthi gunmen stormed the headquarters of the Al-Aqsa Association on Al-Rabat Street in Sana’a, looted the association’s contents and properties, including donation boxes, and arrested its employees, not to mention storming its branches in several other governorates, and arresting its officials.
On August 10, 2015, the Houthis arrested Mohammed Al-Adeel, who holds several positions, including the representative of The Global Coalition to Support Al-Quds and Palestine in Yemen, a board member of the Al-Quds International Institution in Beirut, and the coordinator and head of the convoys that were conducted to break the siege on Gaza, for four Times.
Since its establishment nearly 30 years ago, the Al-Aqsa Association has been providing support and aid for more than 3 thousand Palestinian orphans, and about 350 families continuously, and it supervises the establishment of dozens of projects in Palestine, according to a statement by the association condemning the intrusion, looting of its property, and the arrest of its employees.
On February 23, 2015, the Houthi Movement stormed the office of the Hamas Movement in Sana’a, and arrested its employees.
In the same period, the Houthis stormed the branch of Al-Quds International Institution in Yemen, and the headquarters of the Palestinian Club in Sana’a, and arrested their Yemeni and Palestinian workers.
Until now, the Houthis maintained their control over these institutions, although some of them are international, with branches in Yemen, and did not permit them to resume their activities.
Resentment and Condemnation
This broad campaign aroused the discontent of many Yemenis and pioneers of social media who denounced this behavior, at a time when the Houthi Movement claims its support and solidarity with the Palestinians and their cause.
At that time, journalist Ahmed Shabeh wrote a post on his Facebook page, saying: “Houthis stole the Al-Quds Foundation, Al-Aqsa Association, and the Hamas office, and today they talk about Quds Day,” indicating that they have not shown real commitment to the cause to feign their support.
For his part, political activist Hamza Al-Makaleh said on his Facebook page: “Houthis celebrate the International Quds Day, and Israel has not done to Yemeni Muslims what Abdul-Malik and his supporters did.”
In the last aggression on Gaza in May 2021, the pioneers of social media recalled those campaigns led by Houthis, in conjunction with his calls, mobilization, and demands for support and donations to the Palestinians.
In response, activist Abu Rayan Al-Duhaish recalled the arrest of Muhammad Al-Adeel, asking, via a Facebook post: “There is a question strongly present in the scene: How true is the ‘Death for Israel’ chant in such cases? Is the penalty for those who serve their first cause, as they claim, kidnapping and imprisonment?”
For his part, the journalist known as the Al-Akh Al-Wajeeh mentioned in a post on his Facebook account the Palestinian institutions that the Houthis confiscated.
Saying: “The Houthis have proven and are proving themselves to be the number-one enemy to the Palestinian cause. From the first moments of their storming into the capital, Sana’a, they seized the house of former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and looted its contents, seized the headquarters of the Palestinian embassy and the Palestine Liberation Organization, as well as the contents of the headquarters of the Fatah, Hamas and ‘Popularity and Democracy’ Movements.
“And also the arrest and kidnapping of Yemeni workers in these institutions, and the release of some of them in exchange for ransoms paid by their families that reached up to millions after interrogation and torture.
“The Houthis are also pushing Palestinian refugees and students to leave Sana’a, or else they will be arrested and tortured,” confirms the Al-Wajeeh.
He further added that “the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine and its leader, the late martyr Abdullah Shalah, who has been based in Sana’a since the February 2011 revolution, and visited Saada to meet Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi to save what could be saved Palestinian-wise in Sana’a, but he failed, and eventually had to leave Sana’a in which he found himself trapped, which exposed the headquarters of his Movement to closure and looting.”
Donation or Blackmail?
During the recent aggression on Gaza, the Houthis called for a donation to the resistance in Palestine, through Houthi leaders.
On May 12, 2021, the leader of the Houthi Movement, Abdul-Malik, called for a campaign of financial donations to support the Palestinian people and their resistance.
In a televised speech, broadcast by Al-Houthi’s Almasirah channel and the channels under the movement’s control, Al-Houthi said: “Coordination will be made with representatives of the Palestinian resistance movements in Sana’a to receive financial donations.”
He added: “We are following with great interest the developments on the Palestinian arena following the escalation by the Israeli enemy and its targeting of Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.”
Based on these calls, the Movement conducted organized campaigns that compulsorily collected donations from merchants.
In an interview with Al-Estiklal newspaper, one of the merchants residing in Sana’a, who asked not to be named, said: “The Houthi supervisor in our area called us to donate to Palestine, and of course we can not refuse, because refusal means getting into bigger problems, but we can discuss the amount of the donation.”
He stressed that he “paid 500 thousand Yemeni riyals (830 dollars), which is not the first time that I have been obligated to donate to Al-Quds [Jerusalem],” explaining: “I do not skimp on donating to Palestine and the resistance, but I do not trust those who take donations that they will deliver them to our brothers in Palestine.”
It is worth noting that these calls for donations have aroused the dissatisfaction of many social media pioneers, who saw that the Palestinian cause for the Houthis had become an occasion for profit and blackmail and theft of people, recalling incidents of storming Palestinian institutions and completely confiscating their property and bank balances.
Through his account on Twitter, the leader in the Houthi Movement, Hussin Al-Ezzi, linked the wealth of Marib governorate to the support of the resistance, saying: “A corrupt minority of mercenaries possess all our oil and gas wealth and deprive them of our people in their absolute majority, those existing within the framework of the Sana’a government (85 percent of the population of Yemen).”
He added: “As a majority—and with our rights to this wealth—we demand (immediately, urgently and continuously) allocating two days a week of profits to support Palestine and its heroic resistance.”
Al-Ezzi’s tweet prompted many to respond to him, including the leader of the Yemeni Congress party, Kamel Al-Khodani: “Allocate them three of Muhammad Abdul-Salam’s [the Houthi spokesman] oil shipments, or of the financing that comes to you from Iran, or the income of Dhamar or Ibb customs, or Sana’a’s taxes.”
Whilst the political activist Al-Makaleh wrote in response to the Houthi leader Al-Ezzi: “Hand over to Palestine the price differentials that you loot from the citizens, and Palestine will be liberated in two months. You are bidding on a sacred cause to market your looting and theft. This is an insult to a sacred cause that no free man will accept.”
