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yemen
The Earthquake Environmental Justice Advocates Aren’t Talking About
The environmental movement from within the belly of the beast must recognize that it needs to be part of the growing anti-war movement and push for the U.S. to take its hands off Syria.
Jan 04, 2025
On December 15, many people in Syria felt the earthquake. Seismic scales registered above 3.0 on the Richter scale and could be felt at least 500 miles away. Natural disasters usually have the attention of people around the world. When earthquakes happen, humanitarian workers and supplies are sent to help out. After hurricanes, organizations release statements responding to the urgency of the climate crisis and hypothetical transitions away from fossil fuels.
In Syria, what happened on December 15 wasn’t an earthquake—it was a massive airstrike that Israel carried out in Syria. This ongoing bombardment is reciprocally destructive to daily life and the environment as it continues to push the climate crisis further through jarring fossil fuel consumption.
But where are the environmental organizations? Many organizations that would typically release these statements after “natural” disasters have been silent. Except this was not a natural disaster—and the countries that would typically send “humanitarian aid” are the ones that caused this quake to happen. This deliberate mass destruction came shortly after the U.S. dropped dozens of bombs in just a few hours after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The U.S. has carried out this disastrous project through the extraction of oil in the ground for the sake of extracting more oil from the ground.
The bewildering longtime silence of environmental organizations when it comes to U.S. militarism is not representative of any genuine commitment to climate justice. The most heavily weighted factors in their silence may be a blissful ignorance from the normalization of a whitewashed “environmentalism,” or the fear of repression and financial repercussions of taking popular anti-war stances. Regardless, the murderous result is antithetical to everything they profess.
A June 2024 United Nations report on the environmental impact of the genocide in Gaza highlighted the catastrophic impacts of Israel’s incessant bombing on the ecosystem, water quality, air quality, and soil in Gaza. Genocide doesn’t just cause ecocide, isn’t just parallel to ecocide, but is also a result of ecocide. Ecocide is a tactic of genocide. The long-term damage to every ecological foundation in Gaza makes it harder and harder to sustain life. Life can’t be sustained without agriculture or without clean drinking water. And now, the U.S. and Israel are attempting to repeat this cycle of destruction in Syria, just as they have started to in Lebanon.
Regardless of how hard the imperialism and war economy of Western powers try to create a lavish life for its beneficiaries at the expense of everyone else, it is fundamentally impossible to sustain life for anyone when war-making tools continue to devastate the planet. The grim irony is that the war economy eats its own makers.
The first 120 days of the genocide in Gaza alone produced more emissions than 26 countries combined. Every new base that is established across the globe contaminates the soil that it occupies, harming the ecosystem and the valuable biodiversity that is critical for sustaining life. As it builds bases over occupied land globally, the military literally steamrolls over survival.
Now, the U.S. and Israel are taking advantage of a destabilized Syria to eat away at the nation’s territory to gain more standing in a dangerous escalation against Iran. This is the newest development in a decades-long conquest for dominance in the oil industry that environmental organizations have long campaigned shifts away from. The U.S. has carried out this disastrous project through the extraction of oil in the ground for the sake of extracting more oil from the ground, destroying homes, families, and nations in the process, all while stumbling into the possibility of planetary destruction via climate collapse, nuclear winter, or both.
U.S.-made Israeli bombs have killed multiple civilians in Yemen in the past weeks. Meanwhile, the “cease-fire” reached in Lebanon continues to be breached as toxic bombs rain down on the people of the country daily, while fossil fuels are unleashed in the sky, which has already led to island nations that toxic U.S. bases occupy becoming inhabitable.
Since Assad’s fall, Israel has claimed more land in Syria than all of Gaza. The more that Israel and its allies encroach on this land, the more emboldened the U.S.-Israeli regime becomes in its terrorism throughout the region and the more it risks our global future. The short- and long-term survival of the people of Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen are increasingly threatened due to ecological devastation while they fight to prevent U.S.-made bombs from continuing to destroy their homes every single day. Is their disposability so blinding that these NGOs sacrifice themselves? The longer we escalate, the more emissions will be released from this catastrophe and the longer that crucial biodiversity and Indigenous caretaking will be destroyed.
So, amid this war that is causing complete ecological and planetary devastation, where is the mainstream climate movement? When the U.S. military is the largest institutional polluter in the world, consuming 4.6 billion gallons of fuel annually (77-80% of all U.S. government energy consumption), how can its deadliest campaign in years be ignored by those who seek to protect the planet? When the bombs the U.S. manufactures register on the Richter scale, how is that not a threat to the environment? How is nuclear winter not a threat to agricultural global survival? How can the groups that claim to care about our well-being not stand against a deadly bombing campaign in Syria and possible war with Iran or Russia?
The anti-war movement from within the U.S. is at its strongest in decades. The majority of Americans want a cease-fire in Gaza. The environmental movement from within the belly of the beast must recognize that it needs to be part of this anti-war movement and push for the U.S. to take its hands off Syria. It must raise the public’s consciousness of the dangers of war with Iran. When we think about existential threats to the planet, environmental organizations should be looking at the ecological devastation that Israel and the U.S. are causing and ask themselves why they haven’t done or said a damn thing about the elephant in the room.
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Aid Coalition Warns Millions of Civilians at Risk as Israel and US Bomb Yemen
"It is civilians in Yemen who pay the ultimate costs," humanitarian groups warned following a flurry of airstrikes by Israel and the United States.
Jan 01, 2025
Dozens of humanitarian aid groups warned Tuesday that millions of Yemeni civilians are in danger as Israel and the United States carry out new airstrikes on the impoverished country, which is already ravaged by years of sustained attacks from a U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition.
The aid groups said in a joint statement that they are "deeply concerned about the airstrikes on critical civilian infrastructure, including Sanaa International Airport, power stations in Sanaa and Hodeidah Governorates, and seaports in and near Hodeidah"—a reference to Israeli strikes on December 26.
"These attacks on vital infrastructure serve as a stark reminder of the importance of respecting international humanitarian law, particularly the need to protect critical civilian air and maritime gateways that are indispensable to the survival of millions of Yemenis," the groups said, noting that the airport Israel targeted is "a much-needed delivery point for humanitarian aid in a country where around half of the population (anticipated to rise from 18 million to 19.5 million people in 2025) are in need of assistance—77% of whom are women and children."
"We call on all actors to adhere to international humanitarian law, to ensure the protection of civilian infrastructure that provide critical essential services indispensable for the survival of millions of civilians in Yemen. The consequences of attacks on civilian facilities will be severe and long-lasting for Yemeni civilians, already suffering exhaustion from a decade-long conflict," the groups continued. "We further urge every actor to de-escalate, recognizing that it is civilians in Yemen who pay the ultimate costs."
The coalition's statement came on the same day the U.S. military carried out airstrikes on Yemen, characterizing the attacks as part of an "effort to degrade Iran-backed Houthi efforts to threaten regional partners and military and merchant vessels in the region."
Some progressive members of the U.S. Congress have argued that the Biden administration's repeated attacks on Yemen without congressional authorization are illegal. U.S. President Joe Biden admitted last January that American airstrikes in Yemen have not successfully deterred Houthi rebels from attacking vessels in the Red Sea—but said the strikes would continue regardless.
Israel, for its part, pledged to inflict a "miserable fate" on the Houthis in response to the group's recent drone and ballistic missile attacks.
Mohammed Abdulsalam, a spokesperson for the Houthis, said Tuesday that the latest flurry of U.S. strikes represent "a blatant violation of the sovereignty of an independent state, and blatant support for Israel to encourage it to continue its crimes of genocide against the people of Gaza."
Drop Sitereported that across Yemen, people view the U.S. and Israeli attacks "as primarily harming civilians," echoing the concerns of aid groups.
"This attack harms no one but the people and their livelihoods," said Hodeidah resident Muhammad Alwi.
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With Airport Attack, Israel Is the Latest Country to Endanger Yemeni Lives
The Israeli doctrine of total war, in which civilian harm is completely disregarded, is now being applied to Yemen.
Dec 27, 2024
The Israeli Air Force on Thursday extended its total war on its neighbors to Yemen for a fourth time. The Air Force has gained the technical capability of refueling fighter jets in midair, for which the Israelis and other U.S. allies in the region used to have to depend on the United States. This capability allows them now to fly down the Red Sea to Yemen and bomb it. The attack comes in response to repeated launching of missiles at Israel by the Houthi government of northern Yemen in sympathy with the people of Gaza.
The Israelis bombed the airport in the capital, Sanaa, the port of Hodeida, and oil refineries. Al-Mashhad al-Yemeni reports that according to local sources, the Israeli fighter jets primarily targeted Sanaa International Airport and al-Dailami Air Base, with eight raids having been carried out almost at once.
The Houthis have not been flying jets against Israel, so attacking the airport just harms the civilian Yemeni economy.
The Israelis destroyed the control tower at the airport and appear to have damaged the tarmac, putting it out of operation.
Since the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) was in Sanaa and was at the airport, the attack endangered his life.
Local sources said that Israeli fighter jets conducted three similar raids on Hodeida and oil facilities around the port.
The Israelis have a legitimate casus belli or legal basis for war, given that the Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel, endangering schoolchildren and other civilians. Likewise, the Houthis have disrupted Red Sea commerce by attacking random cargo ships, which further violates the laws of war.
However, the Houthis have not been flying jets against Israel, so attacking the airport just harms the civilian Yemeni economy. Likewise, the Hodeida port is the main conduit for food and other necessities to reach the north for civilian purposes. Attacking oil facilities means lack of gasoline for civilian families to drive into the market and get food. Yemen is a country with a profound health crisis after a decade of war, with millions suffering food insecurity and the danger of disease outbreaks rampant. It has the highest burden of cholera globally.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was at the airport when it was struck, and whose close call exemplifies the Israeli practice of disregarding civilian life, described the scene:
Our mission to negotiate the release of U.N. staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in Yemen concluded today. We continue to call for the detainees’ immediate release.
As we were about to board our flight from Sana’a, about two hours ago, the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured. At least two people were reported killed at the airport. The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge—just a few meters from where we were—and the runway were damaged.
We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave.
My U.N. and WHO colleagues and I are safe.
Our heartfelt condolences to the families whose loved ones lost their lives in the attack.
U.N. spokesperson Stéphanie Tremblay reported that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “warns that airstrikes on Red Sea ports and Sana’a airport pose grave risks to humanitarian operations at a time when millions of people are in need of life-saving assistance.”
The Israeli doctrine of total war, in other words, in which civilian harm is completely disregarded, is now being applied to Yemen. The Israelis are not the first. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates heavily bombed Yemen from 2015-2022, inflicting substantial damage on civilian infrastructure and killing many civilians, in a failed attempt to dislodge the Houthis from power. On the whole, bombing guerrilla groups is ineffectual unless combined with a land campaign.
Even The New York Times has finally caught up to Israeli reporters at +972 Mag, who reported last spring that Israeli commanders were allowing up to 100 dead civilians for each senior militant killed, and up to 20 civilians dead for each lower-level fighter. These barbaric rules of engagement have led NATO to cease military cooperation with Israel, since their ROE violates the norms of the armies of civilized countries.
The Houthis grabbed power in 2014-2015, overthrowing the recognized Yemeni government. They are a militant movement that sprang from the Zaydi denomination of Shiite Islam. The Zaydis differ from the Shiites of Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon in not having ayatollahs and in having relatively good relations with Sunnis historically. Although Zaydis make up only 25% of the Yemeni population of 34 million, they comprise half of the population of northern Yemen where the Houthis rule. Some Sunni tribes have allied with the Houthis, so the latter they rule 70% to 80% of the population.
Of the already perilous condition of the civilian population, UNHCR writes,
The ongoing conflict and related breakdown of basic infrastructure and services, as well as limited availability of humanitarian assistance, has left many displaced individuals and households living in substandard conditions. Inadequate water and sanitation facilities contribute to frequent outbreaks of cholera, with resulting malnutrition. Compounding the severity of these needs, Yemen’s economy is in crisis, with over 80% of the population now living below the poverty line. Of the 96,907 IDP and host community households (588,835 individuals) assessed to date in 2024, almost 50% reported earning 25,000 Yemeni Rial (50 USD) or less per month, with 35% reporting no income at all. This forces some families to rely on harmful coping mechanisms, such as skipping meals, taking children out of school to work, begging, and exposing women and children to other forms of exploitation and abuse, including early marriage.
Yemen is enormous, bigger than California, but its south and east are thinly populated, and those are the areas the Houthis do not control—some 60% of the land area.
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