Act Now to End the War in Yemen and Suspend Arms Sales to the Saudis

By Odile Hugonot Haber
Co-Chair, Middle East Committee

The total population in Yemen is 27.4 million and 18.8 million are in dire need of food. OXFAM reports one civilian is killed every three hours.

“Over a third of [Yemenis] are at risk of starvation if Saudi and UAE bombing campaigns continue,” says Lise Grand, the United Nations coordinator for Yemen, who has warned that “the world has only 3 months to halt the slide toward catastrophe."

The death and food insecurity numbers that you see in many media sources are conservative and, in some cases, grossly inaccurate, according to this Washington Post article.

WILPF Members, This Is What We Can Do (and Ask Others to Do)

Contact your Senators and Representatives and tell them you want them to:

1. Call for urgent immediate ceasefire
2. Suspend arms sales to the Saudis
3. Open the seaports for food and medications for the Yemeni people

You can also join Code Pink with this demand:

This is the moment to mobilize. We have a real shot at ending at ending US complicity in the Saudi-led war on Yemen. We can save millions of lives. Tell your Senators to vote yes on the Sanders-Lee-Murphy resolution S.J.RES.54 to invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973.

PeaceAction is also supporting this legislation.

Use this number to call your Senators now: 1-833-STOP-WAR

After you tell your Senator you want them to support the resolution, indicate that you would like to get a response back.

Text of Resolutions and Amendment

Here is the full text of H. Con. Res. 138 (introduced by the House, the Senate concurring) and its sponsors:

The Murphy Amendment

Here is a press release about the Murphy amendment to the FY 2019 Defense Appropriations bill that would cut off US support for the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen until the Secretary of Defense certifies that the coalition’s air campaign is not violation international law and US policy related to the protection of civilians. The amendment came in the wake of a horrific school bus bombing, which killed 44 children and 10 adults and highlighted the coalition’s repeated strikes on innocent civilian targets.

If you’d like to learn more, here is some further reading:

1. Valentine M. Moghadam’s Peace and Freedom article “The History Behind Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis” in the Spring/Summer 2018 issue (beginning on p. 8).
2. My previous eNews article, Yemen Has Become 'Hell on Earth'.
3. US Supplied Bomb that Killed 40 Children on Yemen School Bus, by Julian Borger, The Guardian, August 19, 2018.
4. US allies have killed thousands of Yemeni civilians from the air. After 22 died at a wedding, one village asks, 'Why us?' By Sudarsan Raghavan, The Washington Post, July 26, 2018.

Please call your representative immediately. It is URGENT!