Al-Bukhaiti: The West Sympathizes with Houthis Due to Lack of Reliable Information

Below is my full translation of Ali Al-Bukhaiti's 16 October column "The Forgotten Yemenis - Why Does the West Sympathize with the Houthis?".

Ali Al-Bukhaiti, former Houthi spokesman

In general, Westerners and non-Arabs view our region within one context only: oil. It's the only resource that caused our countries appear on the map of global interests. Without it, no one would even mention the countries of our region, for in multiple aspects, the social contribution of Arab countries to the world amounts to zero. The contributions of the Arab world don't even equal one thousandth of the scientific and technological achievements of Israel, for example.

That isn't the main subject of this article, but it allows a viewpoint from which to discuss the war in Yemen. For it's through this viewpoint - oil, and the Yemen war's impact petroleum markets - that the Western and non-Arab mind views the conflict in Yemen. They're concerned with the flow of oil, rather than the flow blood from Yemeni civilians.

I won't go into the details of the conflict and current news about Yemen, because that's not our subject here either, rather what concerns me is the Western view of the war in Yemen, and the reasons behind its sympathy for the Houthi movement. I'm not talking about the sympathy of officials/institutions because their interests are determined and there's no room for emotion when it comes to interests. I'm talking about the sympathy of individual people, including those who may have official titles - organizations, journalists, authors, academics, media outlets, think tanks, people within the decision-making circles of civil society - this is what I've seen throughout my various meetings and trips. This inevitable sympathy from this segment stems not from religion or sectarianism, and it has no relation to the reasons behind the inner conflict in the region, instead it stems from other things entirely that need to be considered.

After speaking to many people, it became clear to me that their sympathy stems from their view of the conflict in Yemen and its actors. Here lies the problem and the reasons behind this totally deficient opinion of the conflict. They view the war as between Saudi Arabia on one side, and between a Yemeni Shia minority, with limited support from Iran, on the other. There is a total absence of the Yemeni people and other local actors in the conflict, as they believe that these actors are just tools of Saudi Arabia and have a weak presence on the ground.

When Westerners compare the enormous Saudi and Emirati financial resources, powerful military strength, and vast Sunni population in the region, to the small Houthi minority, with its traditional weapons and limited support from abroad, they can't help but to sympathize with the Houthis.

Westerners neither study nor follow with any urgency Houthi oppresssion and gross violations that would allow proper classification of the group, for they are too busy tracking the crimes of [Saudi, US] Coalition planes against Yemeni civilians and are almost totally oblivious to Houthi actions. Coalition air strikes and technology create more buzz than the Katyusha rockets and traditional artillery that the Houthis use, which kill civilians just the same. The West isn't interested in documenting the violations of the Houthis - the Houthis have no large financial accounts, they have no investments, no ability to sign trade or arms deals, nothing that the West desires for which reports of these violations might provide leverage. The West isn't interested in observing and documenting the crimes of groups that have no wealth and no account balances, because there is no future gain in return for their efforts.

Even while the practices and violations of the Houthis have reached the level of terrorism, no light has been shed on them yet. Bombing the houses of opponents, raiding homes, assaulting children and women, in addition to imprisoning thousands in private prisons where some have died and others were executed. These are all terrorist acts which the Houthis have admitted committing, and practice openly daily - they film when they explode peoples' homes and take pride in it. With all of this, until today neither the Houthis or any of its offshoots have been added to any global terrorism lists, there still exists an official and a popular sympathy for them, and that sympathy springs from the fact that the Houthis, in part, are fighting the Saudis, and there is no love for Saudi Arabia in the eyes of the West.

The West doesn't realize that the Houthis have taken 17 million Yemenis hostage, that they commit the ugliest of crimes. Because Saudi Arabia is an actor in the conflict, all of the focus is on the kingdom. Given the criminal effects of their airstrikes, I'm not defending the Coalition nor the Saudis, but I am calling on the West to see that Yemenis are a people kidnapped by a criminal gang that uses us as human shields, violates our rights, and that seeks vast cultural, theological, and governmental changes. This is as it adjusts the ideologies and instruction of the civil service, both military and civilian. Years from now, there will exist in front of us a savage bloc/movement of those recruited as part of an agenda carried out upon the region.

There is no difference between the actions of Houthis, ISIS, or Al-Qaeda, all of which commit what the West would describe as terrorism, but because the Houthis don't threaten foreigners, specifically Westerners, no one is interested in tracking their crimes. No one has added them to any terrorist lists. Quite the opposite - there are those who consider the Houthis as allies against terrorism because they fight Al-Qaeda, ignoring the Yemeni population held hostage by Houthi actions. They also ignore that the rule of the sectarian Houthi group over wide areas of Yemen actually aids Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups in the region, creating sympathy for them among Yemenis resistant to Houthi rule who view them as the strongest anti-Houthi force.

We must not neglect to mention the failures among Yemeni groups opposed to the Houthis. These groups have failed to convey the true face of the Houthis to the West - to think tanks, media outlets, terrorism-focused research organizations, activists, and decision-making circles - in an objective and professional manner. There are Yemeni failures here. Hadi's legitimacy is supported by a Coalition more interested in justifying its own mistakes/crimes than showcasing those of the Houthis, and for that reason it has lost its credibility. Saudi efforts in this regard can't be trusted for various reasons, the most important of which is the large imbalance in power between it and the Houthis, in addition to the fact that Coalition strikes create a lot of destruction and civilian death... this would make any Saudi effort to showcase Houthi crimes fail before it has even started, it would be waste of time and money.

In order for the Houthi image not to remain clean, its crimes forgotten and uninteresting to Western organizations, an independent and objective Yemeni group needs to be formed that can cover the lack of information available on the Houthis. To convey true facts about them, show the suffering of Yemenis under them, to send the message that the conflict in Yemen isn't between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, but on a simple level it's between Yemenis and Houthis, and it started more than 13 years ago. Saudi participation is a consequence of the conflict, and not a cause of it. There is a whole people who oppose Houthi rule, and suffer havoc as a result.

If the Yemeni people continue to be absent from the equation, if the Yemen war continues to be viewed as a Saudi-Houthi conflict, if the world still doesn't hear about the terrorism of the Houthis, then this misunderstanding and stereotyping will stay, and the world will continue to sympathize with the Houthis.

I'm not looking to defend Saudi Arabia or the Coalition, but the existing view of the Houthis needs to be corrected so that people stop being enamored with them due to misunderstandings and lack of information. The West needs to understand that there are Shia terror groups, even those who claim to be Zaydis, and their extremism is no less than those of Sunni terror groups.