[News] How is Yemen protecting international law as US, 'Israel' violate it?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.almayadeen.net
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/how-is-yemen-protecting-international-law-as-us---israel--vi>
How is Yemen protecting international law as US, 'Israel' violate it?
Mohammad Al-Jaber
January 24, 2024
------------------------------

Yemen is receiving many condemnations for its actions in the Red Sea aimed
at putting an end to the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, while those
upholding the genocide in blatant violation of international law are
applauded.
[image: 234f5703-6478-4649-a291-8b9b0a65f1ce.png]

   - How is Yemen protecting international law as US, 'Israel' violate it?

The United States has grown to be greatly abhorred, and while there are a
plethora of reasons to hate such a state, the hatred it has thus far
garnered goes in part back to its self-interested military interventionism
that dates as far back as the 19th century and protracts until this very
day. Moreover, this could also go back to its sham of championing
international law and the need to respect it all the while neglecting its
stipulations to a T.

Looking back at US history, its path to the top as an empire is paved with
the dead bodies of many foreigners whose governments dared move against
Washington's interests, many of whom were killed through military
interventionism, with many others killed by their sanctions and embargoes
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/blockade-is-war:-us-led-coalition-weaponizing-food-to-choke>,
among other means of starvation
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/sanctions-on-russia-hit-famine-threatened-yemen-hard>
and oppression.

It is rather easy to see how waging wars and starving people thousands of
miles away can make an enemy out of the United States, but this narrative
is nothing new; the US has long been painted as a criminal for its
abominable actions. However, when looking at the casus belli of the wars it
has waged
<https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/22/libya-and-the-myth-of-humanitarian-intervention/>,
it is more abominable and condemnable than ever before.

Although the United States likes to portray itself as this ideal nation
protector of human rights that would not even go as far as tossing a stone
at someone if unprovoked or in defense of their favorite select minorities
or whatnot, granted this provocation can be completely manufactured by the
White House, the reality is often disappointing, and its reasons to go to
war have never not been self-interested.

Now, one cannot simply argue that a nation should abandon all reason,
disregard its interests, pack its bags, and go to war for the benefit of
another people or state, but at least if the US is going to pretend that it
cares about human rights, let at the very least one intervention be
humanitarian issues-driven
<https://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/index.html> and
with actual, non-manufactured consent from the peoples of the country or
region set to be invaded.
Violating international law for own interests

The intentions of the United States when it comes to foreign
interventionism can be traced back to the 1800s Monroe doctrine that aimed
to ban any European colonialist intervention in North and Latin America.
Washington claimed that its actions were to protect itself and other
regional states from the hegemons. But in reality, the entire document was
just a bid for it to conceal its expansionist imperialistic ambitions in
Latin America, with Cuba and Mexico being key states it sought to utilize
as vassals.

One of the clearest manifestations of Washington's self-interest is how it
dodged or struck down the invocation of the Monroe Doctrine several times
by the countries of the region whose governments felt there was a threat to
their independence and territorial integrity and sought help from what they
thought was their ally, which later on confirmed that the Doctrine had been
created solely to serve the United States and its interests.

This went on to become even clearer when US President Theodore Roosevelt
made the Roosevelt Corollary, which permitted his country to intervene in
the affairs of other nations
<https://responsiblestatecraft.org/pinochet-chile-coup/> if they violated
the guidelines set by the United States. Although at the time this allowed
for intervention solely in the  Americas, Washington made sure later on to
allow itself to act in clear violation of the sovereignty of independent
nations worldwide.

This could be traced to any conflict the United States entered or
aggression it initiated, from the First and Second World Wars to the
invasion of Libya, involvement in Syria, etc., and even today when it came
to its aggression on Yemen earlier in January.

In WW1, even though states close to the United States were being battered,
the United States only entered the conflict when its own merchant and
passenger ships were attacked by the Germans, not to mention when it
realized that if the Allies were to lose the war, they would likely be
unable to get the loans they had given them prior.

When it came to WW2, despite the reports about the horrors being committed
by the Axis Powers, most notably the several genocides being perpetrated by
the Nazis, the US remained indifferent — perhaps because it was praying for
the collapse of Europe so that it could reign as an uncontested hegemon —
until the Japanese attacked US soil.

In every subsequent invasion, military intervention, and even serious
diplomatic efforts in the wake of WW2, the United States had but itself in
mind when it came to every single decision it made, in utter disregard of
the stipulations of international documents and conventions.
Let's talk Yemen

When it came to Yemen, its leadership and Armed Forces were and are acting
not in their own interest
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/yemen-prevents--israel--bound-ships-from-passing-via-arabian>,
but that of the people of Gaza, entry of aid to which is either prohibited
or extremely limited depending on the Israeli regime's mood; the
stipulations of Sanaa were incredibly clear and could not be misunderstood
even if one were to try: allow the entry of aid to Palestine
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/yemen-will-resume-operations-against--israel--in-support-of>
or no supplies will reach the Israeli occupation through the Red Sea.

The United States and the United Kingdom, alongside several countries that
seemingly care for a steady stream of military supplies to the Israelis but
not the Palestinians, took it upon themselves to defend the international
trade route by bombing Yemen
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us--uk-carry-out-aggression-on-yemen--media>,
code for defending the Israeli occupation, and as they sought to support
their ally, so did Yemen as it concerned itself with the ongoing aggression
on Gaza, going out of its way to do what the US and co have been describing
as "piracy", "terrorism", and "holding international trade hostage". This
is notably bold from a country known for imposing blockades on anyone it
opposes, which could arguably be called a disruption of international trade.

Away from international law, the United States and Britain here are aiming
to continue supplying a party committing genocide with foodstuff and other
goods while punishing a party standing with the victims of genocide, and in
the process, they doomed themselves
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/insurance-providers-restrict-coverage-for-uk--us--israeli-sh>.
Their own actions of bombing a foreign country had consequences and they
used that cause and effect to further criminalize Yemen.

The consequence in action? Upon being bombed, Sanaa declared that no US- or
UK-flagged ships were allowed to cross through the Red Sea after the ban
was in effect only on Israeli-flagged, operated, and bound ships; the US
simply turned itself once again into an enemy of the Yemeni people, and the
latter would not let that fly - or sail in this case.

This led to various attacks on US cargo ships and joint Western strikes on
Yemen in "retaliation" in a bid to "debilitate" its Armed Forces and make
it more difficult for them to attack any US interests or those of its
staunchest ally.
No need for Congress

When it comes to humanitarian issues, such as calling on the Israeli
occupation to commit to a ceasefire or allow aid to enter the Gaza Strip,
the Biden administration cannot bypass Congress and must adhere to
procedure. However, suddenly, when the President wanted to bomb Yemen, he
brazenly and completely bypassed Congress to attack a sovereign,
independent nation in complete violation of international law.

The UN clearly defines it as illegal for a UN member state to "threaten or
use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of
another state," which Joe Biden acted undeniably against - again, this
points to his and many other administrations' complicity in undermining and
breaking international law
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/biden-s-arms-supply-to--israel--breaches-us--int-l-laws--hrw>
to benefit itself. While many other states may commit acts that are
considered to be a violation of international law, no one does it quite
like the US in the sense that it wants to police the international arena
about abiding by international law while itself violates it whenever it
gets the chance to.

This also highlights that the President can bypass Congress whenever
needed, a clear indication that Biden is not calling for a ceasefire in
Gaza just because he does not want to, putting it up to a lengthy
bureaucratic process that could take years before it results in any action,
making him complicit in the ongoing genocide perpetrated by the Israeli
occupation.
Who really is safeguarding international law?

Article I of the 1948 Paris Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime Convention, more commonly known as the Genocide Convention,
clearly states that the contracting parties, among whom is Yemen, are
obligated to undertake to prevent or punish the act of genocide whether it
is committing in time of peace or war, which is exactly what Yemen is doing
at a time when both the Israeli occupation and the United States are
violating international law through committing genocide and the use of
violence against a sovereign state, respectively.

But is what the Israeli occupation committing truly an act of genocide?
That can be decided by simply reading the stipulations of Article II of the
Genocide Convention, to which the Israeli occupation is a signatory, which
clearly lays out what classifies an act of aggression as genocide. But
let's go through them just in case.

- Killing members of the [targeted] group: *check*. The Israeli occupation
has thus far killed more than 25,000 people
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/day-109--25-490-martyred--63-345-injured-in-gaza#:~:text=Day%20109%3A%2025%2C490%20martyred%2C%2063%2C345%20injured%20in%20Gaza>
in Gaza.

- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group: *check*.
More than 63,000 people have thus far been wounded in the ongoing
aggression, with thousands of children suffering from severe trauma
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gaza-children-left-severely-traumatized-amid-ongoing-israeli>
as they can be seen shaking and experiencing panic attacks among other
clear signs of trauma.

- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part: *check*. There
has been a stifling blockade in place on Gaza since 2007, with the Israeli
occupation even putting limits on the amounts of food and other dietary
substances that can enter Gaza. Human Rights Watch
<https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/18/israel-starvation-used-weapon-war-gaza>
even published an extensive report on the Israeli occupation's usage of
starvation as a weapon of war.

- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group: *check*.
While the Israeli occupation is killing a mother in Gaza every two hours
and 29% of those killed in Gaza are women, that was not enough, for when it
invaded the al-Shifa Hospital following its ground invasion of Gaza,
numerous reports and images showed babies dying outside of their incubators
after the occupation imposed a blackout that deprived them of what was
literally keeping them alive.

- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group: *check*.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has reported that the Israeli military
has kidnapped
Palestinian children from the Gaza Strip
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-soldiers-kidnapped-infant--other-children--euro-med>.
According to the report, Israeli officer Harel Itach, a Givati Brigade
commander, kidnapped a Palestinian infant from her family home in Gaza
following the killing of her family members. The specific date of the
incident was not disclosed, but the organization underscored the
significance of taking this information seriously.

With that, it can be concluded that what is being committed is genocide;
one does not need the International Court of Justice
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/s--africa-icj-appeal-says--israel--genocidal--tel-aviv--deno>
to point out the obvious as the ruling on the Israeli occupation's crimes
is pending, as it probably will be for years.

Moreover, going through the aforementioned, it is clear that the Israeli
occupation is not only violating the Genocide Convention; but also
international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court and that is just on the issue of not allowing the entry of
aid and foodstuffs to Gaza as people starve and resort to eating grass and
animal feed.

Taking all of that into account - the fact that "Israel" is truly
committing genocide - Yemen has been clear in its approach to the
aggression, stating that it is acting solely with the intent to stop the
ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, which is unequivocally valid
under the first article of the Genocide Convention and is actually an
obligation under international law. We don't really see the Soviets
condemned for liberating concentration camps upon entering Germany, now. Do
we?

Today, in this Western-imposed atmosphere of unilateralism and censuring of
any attempt to subvert any act of violence perpetrated by a Western-backed
party, Yemen proves to be an exemplary icon of Resistance with its
unwavering support for Palestine and upholding of international law at a
time when those who proclaim to be its chaperones are breaking it just so
that their Amazon packages are not delayed as they turn a blind eye to the
blatant crime being carried out by one of their closest allies that they
will seemingly keep defending to the grave.
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