How the Houthis showed up for Palestine – and failed Yemenis
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 749 Ratings
🗓️ 9 September 2024
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After nine years of conflict, 18 million Yemenis need aid as the country grapples with human rights violations and economic instability. Now, the Houthis' Red Sea attacks in support of Palestinians have brought Yemen back into focus, but with no peace deal in sight, can the country recover from one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises?
In this episode:
- Afrah Nasser (@Afrahnasser), Non-Resident Fellow, Arab Center Washington DC
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Marcos Bartolomé and Shraddha Joshi, with Duha Mossad, and me, Kevin Hirten, in for Malika Bilal. Special thanks to Abubakr al-Shamahi. This episode was edited by Alexandre Locke.
The Take production team is Amy Walters, Ashish Malhotra, Catherine Nouhan, Chloe K. Li, Duha Mosaad, Hagir Saleh, Khaled Soltan, Manahil Naveed, Marcos Bartolomé, Sarí el-Khalili, Sonia Bhagat, Tamara Khandaker, Shraddha Joshi, and Veronique Eshaya.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.
Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, the real Yemen beyond the headlines. |
| 0:14.0 | It's easier for people to focus on the Houthis in the context of what's going on in Gaza, |
| 0:20.0 | not in the context of what's going on in Gaza, not in the context of what's |
| 0:21.9 | going on in Yemen. Beyond shipjackings in the Red Sea and handsome pirates on social media, |
| 0:27.7 | what does the future hold for a country where more than 18 million people need humanitarian aid? |
| 0:35.7 | I'm Kevin Horton, and this is The Take. |
| 0:39.3 | They call themselves Ansar Allah, the Partisans of God. And they have a knack for inspiring viral content, |
| 0:58.0 | created by reverent voices on the internet sympathetic to the Houthi's foreign policy |
| 1:03.0 | in solidarity with the Palestinians. |
| 1:07.0 | Though certainly not palatable for all tastes, this song is one of the earworm tunes that's |
| 1:12.8 | been making the rounds on social media. |
| 1:15.7 | In it, Yemeni comedian Mustafa El Mamri mocks Israel and its Western allies. |
| 1:22.5 | It implies that for all its financial and military muscle, they are unable to stop the Houthis from wreaking |
| 1:28.8 | havoc in the Red Sea. But the Houthis haven't been a global household name for very long. |
| 1:37.5 | Since the 1990s, the Houthi's goal had been to end U.S. and Israeli presence in the region. |
| 1:43.5 | They claimed to be die-hard anti-imperialists. |
| 1:47.8 | Hailing from Yemen's mountainous north, they became prominent during the civil war that followed |
| 1:52.6 | Yemen's revolution of 2011. |
| 1:55.0 | They took control of the capital, Sana'a. |
| 1:57.8 | And after a Saudi-led coalition started to get involved in Yemen's civil war, the Houthis |
| 2:03.4 | started to receive more and more support from Iran. |
... |
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