National Lawyers Guild International condemns in the strongest possible terms the bombing of the country of Yemen by the United States and the United Kingdom.
We call on states, human rights and legal organizations, and popular movements to Act Swiftly to pressure the U.S. to stop this Imperialist War.
On Thursday evening, January 11, the United States and the United Kingdom launched a series of attacks on Yemen, dropping bombs and missiles on Sanaa, Hodeida, Saada and other Yemeni cities. The actions of the U.S. and UK clearly violate international law, and the Biden Administration is in clear violation of U.S. law which requires that every president must first go to Congress and request military authorization before launching attacks on other nations..
The U.S. is unleashing a regional war, in what amounts to retaliation against Yemen and the Yemeni people for their principled actions in solidarity with the people of Palestine who are facing an ongoing genocide funded and armed by the U.S. itself. Yemen is using its strategic position in the Red Sea to halt the passage of commercial trade to Israeli ports until the international community acts to stop the genocide taking place in Gaza at the hands of the settler colonial Zionist regime and to lift the siege on Gaza to allow food, medicine and fuel to enter.
The United States continues to aid and abet the genocide of the Palestinian people through its financial and political support of Israel, which was shamefully displayed before the world in its veto of a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in addition to its direct provision of arms, intelligence and military assistance of all kinds to the Israeli regime.
As we enter day two of a preliminary hearing at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where South Africa has invoked the Genocide Convention against Israel, we know that the United States is not only retaliating against Yemen, but acting to distract from the ongoing legal proceedings – at which South African lawyers argued brilliantly today to expose Israeli genocide – and to protect Israel from facing consequences for the crime of Genocide, as well as protecting the profits of global commercial trade.
Yemen has been the target of bombing and illegal unilateral coercive measures by the past four consecutive United States administrations and its proxy allies in the region. This is directly connected to the U.S. decision to partner with Israel in this ongoing genocide. In an increasingly multipolar world, the U.S. is desperate to hold on to its power in the region. Even now, U.S. media and politicians are warmongering with Iran as well as Yemen, for the same reason – their refusal to abandon the Palestinian people in Gaza to the genocidal onslaught of the U.S.’ strategic partner, Israel.
As lawyers, legal workers, law students and jailhouse lawyers, it is imperative that we act now, using our legal and political tools to sanction imperialism, to stop the bombing of Yemen and to end the genocide in Gaza. We must act to hold US officials accountable for their war crimes and crimes against humanity, in Yemen, Palestine and everywhere around the world that has been targeted by U.S. imperialism.
