 Winnigrad, co-host of Konapean Congress here tonight with Medea Benjamin and guests. We're very excited about our guests, Aisha Juman of Yemen Relief and Reconstruction, and Shireen Aladami, who is a fellow with the Quincy Institute to talk about Yemen, explain at all what's going on a lot. So before we get started with our program, we're going to just let you know that we have a few norms we want to keep in mind during the program. We want to share respect for our speakers in the chat at all times. We don't usually have a problem with that, but it's good to remind everybody. We do encourage healthy debate to disagree agreeably, and no disrespect stay on topic in the chat. Thanks so much. All right, so tonight we have these two guests I mentioned, and then we'll have a Q&A with them, with Aisha and Shireen, and following that we'll have a capital calling party. We'll be calling about the Senate vote on the $118 billion supplemental because the military budget isn't big enough, right? So there's a supplement for it, and President Biden is asking for $118 billion, $61 billion for Ukraine, another $14 billion for Israel, billions more to prepare Taiwan for war with China, and I think it's another 1,300 border guards, and more. So Medea will talk more about that in a minute, and I'll also give some news updates on what's happening around the International Court of Justice. So with that, Medea, it's all yours. Well, we've been continuing to go through the halls of Congress every day. It's been exhausting, and today was a particularly interesting day because the vote took place in the house on the $17 billion, and it lost by 250 to 180. They needed 2 thirds. They didn't get it, and it's interesting that most of the Democrats voted against it, not because they don't want money to go to Israel, but because the President Biden wanted the money to Israel and the money to Ukraine to be together because he knows that if the money to Ukraine was on its own, there would be Republicans in the house who wouldn't vote for it. So this will rear its ugly head again, but it is a great win for the day anyway that this went down in the house, and in the Senate tomorrow it will be voted on not as a standalone package of just Israel money as happened in the house today, but it will be the package that includes Ukraine, money for Taiwan, and the really controversial one has been the border. Now, we would think that the controversial would be Ukraine and would be Israel, but no, the controversy has been around the border, and there are Republicans who are following Trump who said don't vote for it. Trump really wants to use the migration and the border crisis as a campaign issue, so he doesn't want it to be solved in any way. So Republicans have some of them peeled off and saying it's not good enough, and on the Democratic side, there are Democrats on the immigration issue, some horrible Democrats like Bob Menendez, and as well as Padilla and Ben Lujan who have said the immigration compromise is not good enough from the point of view of supporting immigrant rights, supporting the Dreamers, and so they've been against it. So it looks like this thing will fall apart in the Senate as well, and that will be exciting and we hope it does. We will be encouraging tonight people to vote against it, but let's remember that this is just one more stage in a longer term struggle. And I do say, although I am cautious, that the fact that there was a vote tonight against sending money to Israel, some voting for it against it for good reasons and some for bad reasons, it is still historic because never has there been a vote that was turning down that lost on sending money to Israel. So that's the good part. That's right, and that's what we have to broadcast. The Congress rejected money for Israel. All right, so I have a few updates myself. One of which is that there's a television station in the United Kingdom, Channel 4, that read a five-page dossier that Israel sent to donors, to UNRWA, which they say the television channel says has absolutely zero evidence, zero proof that these a dozen or so UNRWA employees were involved in the Hamas attacks on October 7th, that there's no proof, there's no evidence whatsoever. So hopefully this will lead to the reinstatement of funds for UNRWA on the part of over a dozen countries with the U.S. in the lead, defunding the lifeline, water, food and medicine for Gaza to impose mass starvation on millions of people. What else? Algeria is set to introduce another ceasefire resolution in the United Nations. This one calls for an immediate ceasefire and reinstatement of aid, humanitarian aid, as well as a support for the two-state solution. Spain and Belgium have announced that they are imposing an arms embargo on Israel and we expect more to follow. You know, Medea, I heard that you saw someone, what a former Speaker of the House in the halls of Congress today. You know, we have these wonderful or sometimes just not so wonderful encounters with members of the Senate and the House as we run after them when we see them on their way to going to hearings or going to a vote. Today we saw a number of them including Nancy Pelosi and for those of you who don't know Nancy Pelosi in the last couple of weeks has said crazy stuff that the anti-war protesters are Putin apologists and we're towing the line of Putin if we want to stop Israel's massacre. They also said to some members of Code Pink that have been camping outside of her house in San Francisco, go home to China where your headquarters is. Well, I heard that you confronted her today. Maybe Grace can play that for us. Oh, okay. Let's see. I need the money at home. Don't call us Russian apologists or Chinese apologists. You are an Israel apologist. Don't call us Russian apologists or Chinese apologists or Chinese apologists. You're an Israel apologist. You've got support and genocide. Thank you, Medea and friends for bird-dogging her. There should not be a moment of rest for these politicians who support genocide. I mean, are perpetrating it really when you consider that they want to fund this? Yes. All right. So now we are going to move into our program for tonight. As I mentioned, we have two guests with us for Yemen Explained. We have Aisha Juman, who is the founder and the president of Yemen Relief and Reconstruction. She'll talk about her project and some of the history involved with Yemen. And we also have Shereen Aladami, who is a fellow at the Quincy Institute. But first, we wanted to share a video about Yemen. Ten things you might not know. Here are ten things that you didn't know about Yemen. Yemen is the first country to drink coffee in the city of Mocha even monopolized its trade for years. They have an island called Sokotra that has around 800 species of plants and 37% of them aren't found anywhere else. They were the first country in the Arabian Peninsula to give women the right to vote. The city Sana is considered one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. They have one of the oldest set of high-rise buildings in the world which was built around the 16th century. At one point in time, they were known as the happy or fortunate land in Latin. Yemen was the first country in the Arabian Peninsula to hold an election. Cat is a popular drug in Yemen which is a stimulant that is placed in the mouth until a wad builds up in the cheap. Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East. They have a palace that was carved out from a single rock called Dar al-Hajjar. Here are ten things that you didn't know. Okay, now we know them. Excellent. And we want to share a few photographs as well, maps and so forth, so we can frame this conversation tonight. Here's a photograph of, let's see, what are we showing here? Okay, this was a demonstration in solidarity with Palestine that occurred after the Israeli assault on Gaza. And in addition, we have, yeah, this is a scene from London a few days ago. Stop bombing Gaza, stop bombing Yemen. We know that the Biden administration has bombed at least 60 targets in Yemen, other targets in Iraq and Syria without any congressional approval circumventing the law. Okay, and then we have a map. I don't know if we can move close in on that map, so we can see where Yemen is and the Red Sea. Yemen has been blockading ships to Israel in the Red Sea to uphold its end of the genocide convention. Yemen is a party along with 152 other countries to that convention. Unlike the United States, which is violating its obligations under the convention to perpetrate genocide, U.S.-Israel genocide, Yemen is upholding its obligation. And for that, the United States has bombed over 60 targets in Yemen, many of them in Sana'a, the capital. We'll talk more about that. Is she ring with us yet? If not, we can go to Asia. Oh, there's the capital. It's beautiful. Yes, Shirin is with us. And did you want me to introduce you? Yes, yes, please. So we're delighted to have Shirin with us. Shirin Aladami is an assistant professor of education at Michigan State University. Since 2015, she's played an active role in raising awareness about the Saudi-led war on her country of birth, Yemen, and works to encourage political action to end U.S. support. She is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute. Thank you so much, Shirin, for being with us this evening. Thank you so much for hosting this event. It's really wonderful to be here with you. I've been following your work, of course, for years and then just more recently, everything that you've been doing to hold our elected officials accountable. So my deep, deep gratitude to Code Pink and to everybody here for really showing what solidarity looks like. You could see a painting of that at Hajar behind me. It was one of the pictures that you showed before, which is really nice to start off our conversation, just reminding us about what home is to so many of us and all the wonderful things that Yemen has to offer outside of being protectors against genocide, which is honestly a moment of deep pride for so many of us as Yemenis. I also want to express my solidarity with the Palestinian people who have just suffered immensely, not just since October, but since 1948 when their homeland was stolen. Many of you maybe have seen me or have heard others talk about the situation in Yemen since 2015 and it was often described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis by the UN and by so many other aid organizations and agencies. Unfortunately, this title is now taken over by Palestine, given the horrendous situation that we see in Gaza and the massacres that are broadcast live to us on our phones every single moment that we're online. You may be wondering what's happening and the nuances that are happening in Yemen and the Red Sea, and I just want to begin by saying that the support of Palestinians and the Palestinian cause, it may be construed as something that's inauthentic or is used to gain clout in the region, but anybody who knows the history of Yemen knows that this is an authentic and historic support for the people of Palestine and for the Palestinian cause. Since the inception of the state of Israel, Yemen was one of the first countries, it had just joined the United Nations and when they voted to partition Palestine, Yemen was one of five countries that walked out in protest and over the decades has played a tremendous role in supporting the Palestinian cause and Palestinians, not just in speeches but just providing actual material solidarity to the Palestinians. One example, 1973, 50 years ago, when there was a war launched by Egypt against Israel. Yemen, given a strategic location, you showed the map just now, actually blockaded Bab el-Mandab at the time to express solidarity with the Palestinians. The blockade that we're happening now is a repeat and an expansion of what happened in 1973. At the time, it was under the communist government in South Yemen, but no matter the government that we've had in Yemen, we've had our issues with our leaders, but no matter the government we've had in Yemen, they've all expressed solidarity and support for the Palestinian people. I mentioned leaving the UN in protest that was under monarchy. I mentioned the communist South Yemeni's providing support for Palestine in Bab el-Mandab and also the president that we had the dictatorship of Saleh for decades. He also opened up Yemen for Palestinian leadership when they sometimes had nowhere else to go and Palestinians were always welcoming Yemen to work and to have the rights of civil rights of all Yemenis. They didn't have to live in refugee camps, for example, or any such situations like we've seen with Palestinian refugees elsewhere. I say this to express that the solidarity that we're seeing and what unsolvable are doing in the Red Sea are not a product of just the last couple of months. They are just a continuation of decades long of solidarity with the Palestinian people and with the cause of the Palestinian people. Now, given its strategic location in Bab el-Mandab Strait, which is a small opening basically, maritime opening that plays a very, very crucial role in maritime and international shipping, Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the UAE, and a coalition of 17 countries began bombing Yemen in 2015. Again, not because Yemen is economically, I mean, there are gas and oil reserves, but mainly it was because of Yemen's strategic location in Bab el-Mandab because they realized that they couldn't have as part of the Yemeni government, people who are so expressly anti-imperialist, anti-U.S. interventions in Yemen, anti-Saudi interventions in Yemen. And so that was the reason Yemen had been embroiled in this conflict for so many years, bombarded by its neighbors with the support, full support of the United States in the UK, blockaded, prevented from, you know, from trade, the population became reliant on aid. Everything that you see Israel doing to Palestinians right now, we've seen Saudi Arabia with the support of the United States due to Yemenis over the last decade. Everything they've said about, you know, oh, we're not blockading Palestinians, we're just blockading Hamas, we've heard that about Yemenis, we're not blockading Yemenis, we're blockading the Houthis, or we're not bombing Yemeni targets, we're bombing Houthi targets, exactly what they're saying, you know, about Hamas, whereas we see that the results on the ground are that, are the destruction of the Palestinian people and their homes and their schools and everywhere. We've heard the idea that, you know, Houthis use human shields every time they couldn't explain any, the, the, the civilian casualties and we're seeing that of course mirrored in, in Gaza. So this is to say that if, if South Africa was moved by, if South Africa, if South Africa was moved by their deep and intimate understanding of what apartheid is and move a case to the ICJ because of their understanding of apartheid and they see it in Israel and Palestine, Yemenis are moved because they know what it's like to live under blockade, what it's like not to have medicine on the shelves, what it's like for a child to die and that from hunger and starvation and a parent to not be able to provide it, even just provide that child, you know, just even a piece of bread. And so what you see Yemen doing right now is in direct response of what they've endured over the last decade. And if they can do something to uplift the state of the Palestinian people, then they are doing that and they're citing international law as they're preventing shipping to specifically Israel. How did our dear president respond? Instead of calling for a ceasefire, which 60% of Americans and 80% of Democrats have, have expressed over and over since October. He decided to form a coalition called Operation Prosperity Guardian, which as the name suggests, is a defense of capitalism. And when that wasn't working out very well, he decided to launch direct attacks in Yemen. Of course, anytime you hear SENTCOM talk about this, they say that they are targeting Houthi targets as though Yemeni ports and airports and tourist areas are, you know, Houthi targets, quote unquote. So there's been an escalation by the Biden administration. We know this is illegal, unconstitutional. It didn't matter with, you know, it's never mattered with any US president, frankly, and it clearly doesn't matter now. I think it's shameful that Congress is not doing anything about it. You know, rhetoric is one thing, but these, these are grounds for impeachment. So we, I think these are really tense times. The only way, the only solution is to call for a ceasefire is for our elected officials to condition their aid to Israel. That's a very, very, very least they could do. Instead of course, they're providing them with material and diplomatic cover, blocking every ceasefire resolution and probably will veto the next one that's coming up with Algeria as well. But we really need to be holding our officials accountable because if Biden is going to be doing whatever he wants and it could even cost him the election, you know, since Israel is so near and dear to him, then at least Congress should be stepping in to prevent further unconstitutional attacks on Yemen and the facilitation and the complicity in genocide in Palestine. So I'll stop there and I look forward to our discussion later. Thank you so much, Shuri and Aladami. Aladami, it's a real honor to have you with us on Coating Congress tonight and to hear your insights. And we look forward to hearing more during the Q and A. Now it's my pleasure to introduce our next guest. Aisha Juman is the founder and president of Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation. Dr. Juman earned her PhD in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her master's in public health from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and her BA in biology from Mills College, Oakland, California. Dr. Juman has over 30 years of experience in public health including work in Yemen with agencies for the United Nations. Welcome, Aisha Juman to Coating Congress. I think you might be on mute. Yeah, I was trying to unmute myself. Thank you all very much for inviting me and Shuri to this gathering. I'm very happy to be with all of you. It's always very heartwarming to be with a group that you can identify with and your politics are similar because the more we see what the mainstream media says, the more heartbreaking and lonely you feel. I'm going to share a presentation on what's happening in Yemen. Can you see my presentation? Yes. Okay, perfect. So basically, I'll start with the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, talking about that and also going into what's happening now also with the issue of Palestine as well because that is very relevant to what's happening in Yemen. I know that you saw some pictures of Yemen, but I also always like to start my presentations with pictures of Yemen. You can see Sana'a, which is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, and this is a bridge between two mountains that's about 700 years old. And this is a school in the town where I was born in Yemen. And then in terms of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, this is based on UN reports of the 32 million people in Yemen. There are 21.6 million people who are in need of humanitarian assistance. And Shirin had talked about the decade-long war that is supported by the U.S. and led by the Saudi-led coalition. And it's not just the airstrikes, it's also the blockade. And the blockade is actually more devastating to the Yemeni population. It was put in place in 2015, March 2015, and it is still in place now. Of the 21 who are in need of humanitarian assistance, 13.4 million are in need of assistance now, or immediate assistance. So if we look at the 13 million people who are in need of assistance now, what we see is 24 percent of those are women and 51 percent of those are children. And 15 of those are people with disability. If we break down in terms of the people in need, we see women 5.2 million and 5.4 for girls. For men, it's 5.3 and boys 6.7 million. We go into, in terms of the Yemen health crisis, a lot, over 50 percent of the Yemeni health system had been destroyed by airstrikes. And that resulted in a devastating situation for the population. We also don't like, also Shirin referred to this, is that medications they're available, they're also very, very expensive. When you look at the severity of the health needs in Yemen, this is actually quite disturbing. We see that 35 percent of the people in Yemen are in severe need of medical care, 58 percent are in extreme need, and 7 percent in catastrophic. This 7 percent, many of them actually will die. If we look at the food security in Yemen, since for 2023, all the red spots here are an emergency, and they're only one step away from famine. There are about 17.6 million people in Yemen who are in food insecure. There isn't any place in Yemen where they have food security. I would like to read here Alex Duval on the mass starvation in his book, The History and Future of Famine. He said Yemen is the greatest famine atrocity of our lifetime. The Saudis are deliberately destroying the country's food producing infrastructure. The United States and the European countries have enough leverage to get the Saudis and Emiratis to stop bombing agriculture, health, and market infrastructure and open the ports. It's a political created famine and they'll have to be solved by political created means, and many of you can see very similar, if even more, you know, a more stronger situation that we see now in Gaza. In terms of the Yemen nutrition crisis, we see 11.9 people who need nutrition to survive. And this is a trend that going up since 2015. And we see that again, 45 are in the need of nutritional food. Extreme is about 25% and cat's traffic is 30%. This is mostly affecting young kids who are more born than to infectious diseases and more likely to die as well from this. If we look at the my nutrition in Yemen among children specifically, this is from UNICEF regional director. He said half of the Yemeni children under the age of five are chronically managed. 1.1 million pregnant or lactating women are anemic. Newborn children will have low birth weights leading to chronic my nutrition and other health problems. 50% of Yemeni children younger than five years who are chronically managed will not develop to their full intellectual potential. This is something that Yemen will have to deal with for a very long time. And on top of that, in December of last year, WFP decided to stop food distribution in North Yemen to 9.5 million people. So the 9.5 million people are now will be pushed into famine. And this is something that I think is also related to US decisions to punish Yemen. There are about 400,000 people who have died in Yemen. This is by the end of 2021. The majority of these people did not die from airstrikes, but the majority of them died from hunger, infectious diseases and diseases that they are not able to get treatment for. And this is continuing until today. As an epidemiologist, I can tell you that this number is a huge under estimate and because nobody reports deaths in Yemen, and that the true number is probably around a million. Going to the truth and peace negotiation in Yemen, because now this is being impacted by what's happening in the Red Sea, when the first truce agreement occurred in April 2022, the terms of the two months agreement, a truce agreement at that point in time, was the facilitating of entry of 18 fuel ships into the port of the data. At that point in time, Yemen was receiving 1 to 2% of its fuel. And so that led to mass closures of many health facilities, and then also allowing two commercial flights a week to and from Sana'a airport. And because Sana'a airport had been closed since 2016. These terms also include covering a meeting between the parties to the agreement. So since that truce was extended twice until October in 2022. However, since then there is a truce that is de facto, but it wasn't agreed on. So the demands from the Houthis, since October 22, when the truce expired, were two things. One is the coalition pays the salaries of all state employees, including the military, from Yemen's oil and gas revenues based on employment list of 2014. This is very important. First of all, the Yemeni state employees have not been paid salaries since again 2016. And also the Houthis did not come into Sana'a until September of 2015. So they're basically saying pay the salaries of people who were state employees before we came into Sana'a. The second one was open all airports and ports under Houthi control that are still by the way close today. So after that we started to see some very positive news. This is from January 17, 2023. Yemen rebels and Saudi in back channel talks to maintain the truce. After that there were even better news in April of 2023, where Saudi Arabia makes peace proposal for Yemen after Houthi talks, where the Saudi ambassador went to Sana'a and met with the government in Sana'a. So that was a huge breakthrough and all of it started thinking peace is possible in Yemen. This is from September 20, 2023. Saudi Arabia places positive results after Yemen Houthi rebels visited the kingdom for peace talks. Again, this was very welcome news. This is from September of last year that the peace process in Yemen was about to happen. Going back to December of 2023, this is from Al Jazeera. Yemen warring parties commit to ceasefire. You only let peace process as envoy. So again, a lot of good news happening. And then so what were the terms of the peace process between the Yemeni government and exile and Sana'a government in Sana'a? So they agree to a permanent nationwide ceasefire, commitment to resume oil exports, pay all public sector salaries, open roads and ties in other parts of Yemen, further ease restrictions on Sana'a airport and Hadeida port, and engage in preparation for assumption of an inclusive political process. Look at it here. It's further ease restriction. They did not talk about opening Sana'a airport completely or lifting the blockade on Sana'a airport or Hadeida port. Hadeida port is the largest port in Yemen, and it used to import 90 percent of Yemen needs. Again, in December of last year, Yemen government, which is the internationally recognized government, welcomed you and road map to end war. So again, everybody was excited about that. However, you know, we have now the war in Gaza, and this is the Houthi's position on the war in Gaza. And I think it's important for people to hear what their position is because there is so much misinformation on what their position is. So basically on in November, so this is over a month after the war started, all Israeli link ships cannot pass through Bab el-Mandeb until there is a ceasefire. And then in December 3rd, they said all ships going to Israel, regardless of ownership, destined to Israel cannot pass through Bab el-Mandeb until humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza. So I really don't see why anyone, especially to point number two, would disagree with this. Why would people disagree that we need to have humanitarian aid entering to Gaza? So what has been the U.S. response to the Red Sea crisis? So U.S. military coalition began patrolling the Red Sea on November 22. U.S. established Operation Prosperity Guardian on December 18. And then U.K. and the U.S. military attack. And by the way, this operation, they announced they have about like 10 countries, all of the countries actually announced that they're not part of it. And the only people that stayed were U.K., U.S. and Bahrain. And then the U.K. and the U.S. started attacking Yemen on January 12. And then U.S. designated the Houthi as a terrorist group on January 17. And this has huge implication for the peace process in Yemen, because now this decision to designate Houthi as a terrorist group will block a crucial element of the peace process, which is paying salaries to public servants who have not been paid since August 2016, until U.S. grants a license authorizing that. So I would like for us to ask that that license be granted, but my preference is for a ceasefire and, you know, entering aid into Gaza. So this is the designation. And here is someone from International Crisis saying, I think it's a form of the do somethingism. The reimposition of the SDGT designation he added is a reflection of Washington's refusal to recognize that recent Houthi's attacks are linked to the war on Gaza. The U.S. continuously said it's not linked to Gaza. The Biden administration has put himself in a box where it doesn't have a good policy options. Today, the New York Times published this article, says the Houthi attacks on U.S. led strikes, dash hopes for quick Yemen peace deal that was supposed to be signed in January. So what are the future of peace in Yemen right now? It's actually very dim. The anti-Houthi groups in Yemen began calling for international support to start fighting, as if nine years of fighting is not enough. U.S. Ambassador in Yemen met with the Minister of Defense in the internationally recognized government yesterday. And then this is from the New York Times article today, the escalation of the Red Sea has resulted in the direct suspension of a deal that was anticipated to be announced in recent months. The UN-led political discussions are presently at standstill. Thank you very much for allowing me to share this information. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Aisha Jumaan. Aisha, I just wanted to mention that we have somebody on with us that both of you have worked with so long, and that is Isaac Evans-France. And he is the Director of Action Corps that has been so active around the Yemen issue and was really key in getting the passage of those 2018 and 2019 war power resolutions. So we're just going to give a moment for Isaac to say something right now. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. And thank you, Dr. Aisha and Dr. Shireen. The point that I want to make is that you as Code Pink activists and everybody in the United States has power here. It can feel so discouraging and depressing, but we have proof that it makes a difference when we speak up, and that proof has been around Yemen. As Medea just mentioned in 2018-2019, Congress passed historic bipartisan Yemen war powers resolutions pursuant to the Constitution, Article 1 of the Constitution, and the war powers resolution of 1973. And that happened because people like yourselves, Code Pink activists and people in my organization Action Corps, the many American activists around the country organized. We showed up in front of congressional offices and we made the price of inaction so high that they were pressed to become co-sponsors and ultimately vote for these Yemen war powers resolutions, which made a difference. Even though Trump vetoed them, they did make a difference. And it's important to note that from April 1st, 2022, until the present, Saudi Arabia dropped no bombs as far as I know, and Aisha, I see you nodding your head on Yemen. So that's it's important to know that it isn't all gloom and doom. The fact is we have made a difference as activists. It wasn't just activists, but we played an important role in stopping that bombing. And we can play an important role again. I learned from Aisha yesterday that over 300 bombs, or there have been over 300 airstrikes in the last month or so by the U.S. and the UK on Yemen. And there had been some discussion, well, is the United States technically involved in hostilities in Yemen? Because the United States was providing military support and weapons to Saudi Arabia? Well, now it's very direct. And there are members of Congress of growing bipartisan coalition Congress that is saying the president must come to Congress for a vote in order to continue these unauthorized airstrikes. And that includes folks like Senator Murphy, Senator Cain, Senator Young, Senator Lee, that's Republicans and Democrats, as well as a coalition in the House that just came out, I think it was last, yep, it was late last month, 20 members of House, House members, 27 House reps that have continued that call for a congressional vote in order to continue these airstrikes. And we know that if Congress were to vote on this, like it's not going to pass. That's a way of basically getting, using the process and focusing on the Constitution to build opposition to this. So my point is, don't lose hope. The work that you all are doing this evening in terms of Gaza and ceasefire and the stopping the ridiculous weapons sales of billions of dollars, the transfer of weapons to Israel, that all is really important in helping de-escalate and ultimately save lives throughout the Middle East. Thank you so much for your advocacy. Thank you, Isaac. So nice to have you join us. Wonderful. And I appreciate your encouraging and empowering words because, yeah, these are very difficult times, but we can't let the adversity make us impotent, right? We have to keep on, you know, it's up to us. So with that, I'd like to ask, I don't know if any of you who would like to take this, but my question is, what's going on right now in the Red Sea with Yemen blockading ships? We heard a while back about all of these strikes maybe 10 days or so ago against Yemen for upholding, basically it's end of the genocide convention. But today, yesterday, the day before, have you heard much? And have there, somebody posted in the chat, have there been civilian casualties? There's really no news here for us on this. Yemenis have been posting videos. There's been, yesterday there was an Al Jazeera reporter in Yemen commenting on the first strike in Hadeida, and as he was speaking, a second strike hit, not very far away from where he was. People were reporting that the earlier strikes were kind of just kind of meant to as a show of strength. So they were hitting some mountainous areas, but there have been casualties. I'm not sure about civilian, but certainly members who are in the armed forces have been killed by these air strikes. But the attacks yesterday, I think, signal a shift because they're getting closer and closer to civilian areas. You know, Houthi targets are Yemeni targets, right? Airports belong to the Yemeni people. These ports belong to the Yemeni people. So if they're trying to instill terror, that's one approach of the Biden-Sunak air strikes, although it doesn't really work on Yemenis, to be honest. But there are targeting, like we saw yesterday, for example, the second airstrike that hit Hadeida, people were literally carrying their floaties and moving away from the beach area because it's this touristy beach area. I know this area growing up. You go and it's by the coast and people just go to spend the day there. And so they're attacking very close to civilian areas, but also just attacking areas that they're calling Houthi targets, but aren't necessarily targets. Now there aren't, we haven't seen the massacres that we've seen with Saudi-led airstrikes, although, you know, it's not beyond the United States because they had a role in every one of these massacres against Yemeni people since 2015. Thank you for that update, Shirin. Medea? Oh, yes. Please go ahead. Sorry. Yeah. Basically, as Shirin said, it was correct that initially they were targeting mountainous areas. But more recently, the last two times, one, they targeted neighborhood. And I can tell you that they targeted my parents' neighborhood. And it was terrified because that neighborhood that had been hit by the Saudis constantly. And yesterday's attack were actually on a park, on a beach. And it was usually also, they would target, you know, at midnight when a lot of people were at home. Yesterday's target was in the most busy day for people attending the park. So no, they are becoming more, I think, violent in their attacks. So there have been a few questions that people have emailed me, chatted directly. One says, is the U.S. actively sabotaging talks between Yemen and Saudi Arabia now? Another is that U.S. officials say that the majority of the ships being stopped by the Houthis have nothing to do with Israel. And so I wonder if, Shirin, we could start with you. Yeah, folks, honestly, we're working against a really massive misinformation campaign and disinformation campaign. It has been the case for the last decades, but it's on just on steroids right now. Now, the Houthis have said that they are targeting Israeli-owned and Israel-bound ships. That's true. Ever since the U.S. and U.K. started bombing Houthis in response, they've expanded that to say, now we're also going to attack U.S.-owned and U.K.-owned ships. Now, is there technology precise? No, they're not spending the millions and millions of dollars that the U.S. and their coalition of capitalists are spending to police that region. And so I don't know if they always have the precise targets, but the intention is that they are trying to attack these ships specifically. And there are hundreds of ships that go through that every single week, and they've been able to go through. It's not that ports are reporting that their ships are not landing in their, countries are not reporting that their ships are not landing in their ports. Israel is the only one that seems to be affected so far, particularly the port of Elat in Israel. The second question, the U.S. has been derailing the talks for quite some time. When the Saudis were ready, for example, a year ago to accept the condition of paying salaries using oil and reserves, money from oil and reserve sales, oil and gas sales, the U.S. were saying, no, no, these are maximalists, quote unquote, maximalist demands and that, you know, Saudi, there's no way Saudi should or will admit to these concessions. And more recently, I just saw a headline today that I didn't get a chance to read, but there's more evidence of U.S. derailment of the talks. And even just by designating the Houthis as terrorists is just one more attempt to derail the talks between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Saudi Arabia is not going to want to be seen as making a deal with so-called terrorists. So that's one way that they've done that. Thank you. And if any of you want to post in the chat, people to follow on Twitter or Instagram, to receive some of this news by all means, because we're certainly not hearing it on CNN or reading it in the Washington Post or the New York Times. And we want to stay up to date. I'm wondering about the street heat in Saudi Arabia and how important or what role that would play in affirming a truce between Saudi Arabia and Yemen and preventing Saudi Arabia from siding with the United States and the UK in sabotaging these ships, I mean, excuse me, in sabotaging and bombing Yemen and refusing to uphold the genocide convention. So I don't know who wants to take that. Basically, what's the street heat in Saudi Arabia? Saudi Arabia, when the US decided to make this coalition, none of the countries on the Red Sea agreed to be part of that coalition. So, Egypt refused to be part of it. Saudi Arabia refused to be part of it. I mean, not a single country. And that tells you a lot about it. The other thing also, the Saudis have warned the US government of escalation in Yemen. So there is a silly thing that the Saudis do want out of Yemen. And they want out of Yemen not because, you know, they're kind hearted. They want out of Yemen because it's being costly for them and because they also want to focus on economic development within Saudi Arabia. And as long as there is a threat from Yemen, that's not going to happen. Nobody's going to invest in Saudi Arabia. So there is a deterrence from that perspective. In terms of whether the US is sabotaging, definitely the US sabotaging peace talks in Yemen. Every time we hear that there's going to be some agreement, Linder came flies to the Gulf and then everything is unraveling. And even today, I mean, the US government is saying that the salaries are not going to be paid because of this designation. So that is one way to sabotage the talks. Going back to the ships and how the Saudis around Saudi Arabia identify them, they actually asked the ships to declare where they are going. And so many of the ships that are not distant to Israel will say in their information, you know, they're sent to China or India and all of that. Some ships will turn that off. And the minute they turn it off, then they become very suspicious. So they actually make multiple calls to the ships and they have actually released some of their videos while they're calling on ships to identify who they are and where they're going. And those ships who refuse to respond and turn their location off are then suspected of being either Israeli owned or distant to Israel. So there's a question here about, we never hear about the Houthis without that it being Iran backed Houthis. Can you tell us the depth of the connection between them? Shirane, you want to take that? Yes, it's a question I get every single time I potentially leave Iran out of my opening talks because I know this question is going to come up rightfully so because that's all we hear. We hear the phrase. It's just those words have to show up in sequence. Iran backed Houthi rebels. And you know, it's like everybody took a pledge to say those words or something. So Iran backed, okay, Iran does have a positive relationship with the Houthis. There's no denying that the idea that Iran would have been able, even if they wanted to, been able to support the Houthis materially as much as the U.S. and U.K. and everybody else claims in Saudi Arabia claims that they have is just impossible. The country was under blockade for God's sakes. People were dying because there was no food. There was a journalist who had to smuggle herself into Northern Yemen in order to report on the blockade, which then the United States said did not exist. And so if people are having to smuggle themselves into the country, children are dying because there's no medicine. There's no, and I should can speak to the years-long blockade of crucial medical supplies that people desperately needed, right? People were starving because Yemen imported 90% of its food and the Saudis were just refusing aid into the country, deciding how much fuel would enter, just keeping Yemen at bare minimum if at all, right, until pumps were shutting down, water pumps were shutting down, cholera spread more than any other country in the world, and hospitals were shutting down and so on and so forth. Yet we're supposed to imagine that Iran was somehow deceiving everybody and going through invisibly, I guess, through this land air and sea blockade and somehow supporting the Houthis materially. Now, there was and there is evidence of coordination of some intelligent sharing and things like that, maybe some logistical support or tactical support, but it dwarfs in comparison to what the other sides were receiving. The other sides, the people who are this, you know, Raktag groups that are fighting the Houthis and have been for the last several years would not exist without the United States, the UK, the US, or sorry, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. There are leaders that are literally hanging out in Saudi and UAE hotels waiting to be told what to do next. And so to just say that the Houthis Iran backed, I think, takes away from their agency because it's easier, I think, for the Saudis to admit that they've lost to Iran than that they've lost to a group of people who don't really have a navy or, you know, they have one helicopter. So I think that's the narrative that we're hearing. Thank you, Shireen. I want to add to what you said because if even if you read US officials talking about Iran backing the Houthis Iran, you'll see half of the time US officials saying that is not true. Even last week, they were saying Iran has no influence over Ansar Allah, even when they had a hearing at the Senate and they asked, you know, State Department how many Iranians are in Yemen. I think the President responded. He said about maybe 12 or 20. And I know the Senator who asked that was stunned. You're talking about 12 or 20 people and you're saying Iran backed, you know, the Saudi have a US operation room with you as personnel there. So it is a laughing matter, but unfortunately narratives are very strong. And that's what I think is very important to push against the narratives. And if you look at State Department recent tweets in the last just, you know, 24 hours or 48 hours, you will see that it is full of misinformation. But we do know that there are some US troops in Yemen. Of course, we're not hearing any news about that from the State Department. Yemeni have been saying that since last year. They actually took videos of them and posted them. But unless it's published in US media or Western media, it doesn't count. Well, I want to thank all of you so much for your contributions to the conversation tonight. We're going to have a capital calling party in a minute where we're going to call our senators to urge them to vote no on this $118 billion worth spending package that President Biden thinks is so terrific. So but first, please let's unmute and thank our guests. Isaac joined us. Shareen was with us and Aisha was with us. Aisha, thank you.