|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The following analysis was authored by Zoef Menovsky, Arabic-language research associate for CAM’s Antisemitism Research Center (ARC):
With their recent advances in Yemen’s Red Sea coastal region, the Houthis are back in the headlines, raising international concerns about the Iran-backed group’s growing threat to regional security and stability.
The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah (“Supporters of God”), are a Zaydi Shia movement that emerged in northern Yemen in the 1990s under the leadership of Hussein al-Houthi. After Hussein was killed in 2004, his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi became the movement’s leader. In 2014, the Houthis seized control of Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, and have since maintained control over large parts of northern Yemen.
The Houthis are closely aligned with Iran, forming part of the Tehran regime-led “Axis of Resistance,” alongside Hezbollah, Hamas, and pro-Iranian militias in Iraq and Syria — an alliance that is ideological as well as military in nature.
Following the addition of a dedicated Arabic-language analyst this summer, CAM’s Antisemitism Research Center (CAM) began an in-depth examination of antisemitism in Houthi-controlled Yemen and what it found was striking. Antisemitic messaging is not hidden — it is openly used and promoted by the Houthis across public spaces.
At the core of the Houthi ideology is the slogan: “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews, victory to Islam.”
The slogan was first introduced by the Houthis in the early 2000s and reflects the influence of the rhetoric of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Houthis, however, added an explicitly antisemitic element, cursing Jews as a people, rather than directing the slogan solely against the United States and Israel.
The slogan’s is most commonly heard in Sana’a’s Al-Sabeen Square, which has long functioned as the site of weekly anti-U.S. and anti-Israel rallies. Every Friday, the square fills with demonstrators waving Yemeni and Palestinian flags, brandishing rifles, and chanting the slogan in unison, all broadcast live on the Houthi-run Al-Masirah television channel. Similar rallies are also regularly staged throughout Houthi-held territory, in cities including Saada, Hodeidah, Dhamar, and Amran.
Crucially, the antisemitic animus driving the Houthis predates the October 7th massacre by more than two decades. On October 7th itself, as southern Israel was still burning and long before the start of Israel’s military response in Gaza, footage posted to Instagram showed thousands of Houthi supporters taking to the streets in celebration of the Hamas attack, carrying signs bearing the slogan.
The scale of the public messaging is noteworthy. Wherever the Houthis rule, the slogan is omnipresent, visible on the streets, billboards, university campuses, Quranic websites, and army uniforms.
The hostility has had concrete consequences. In 2021, the Houthis expelled Yemen’s last remaining Jews. In the nearly three years since October 7th, starting less than two weeks after the attacks, the group has fired hundreds of ballistic missiles and explosive-laden drones toward Israel. Most have been intercepted by Israel’s aerial defense systems, but an Israeli man was killed when a Houthi-launched drone hit a Tel Aviv apartment building in July 2024.
The Houthis have also persistently targeted commercial and naval vessels in the Red Sea, including U.S. Navy ships, disrupting one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, with global economic ramifications.
The Houthis’ hatred of Jews, Israel, and the United States is blatant. It is publicly displayed, repeatedly reinforced, and strongly implanted as a foundational ideological pillar. What the ARC’s research exposes is not simply isolated rhetoric, but a society and culture where antisemitism is an inseparable part of daily life.
Read more:
CAM Expands Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) With Dedicated Arabic-Language Monitoring Capacity
Latest CAM Monitoring Exposes Students for Justice in Palestine’s Whitewashing of Houthi Terrorism
