SANA’A - Soon after the Houthi group hijacked
a commercial ship in the Red Sea, the group used the vessel to record a music
video.
اضافة اعلان
In the slick production,
Houthis use a drone
camera to pan over the hulking ship. Then a famous Houthi poet appears on the
deck — accompanied by what appears to be a cardboard cutout of
Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian commander assassinated in 2020 — and begins to sing.
The Houthis have long been skilled in crafting
poetry, television shows, and catchy music videos to spread their messages. But
they have never had as large an audience as they do now, as the war in the Gaza
Strip propels them to the center of a global battle of accounts and attracts
new admirers around the world.
Over the past few months, the Houthis have
vaulted to worldwide prominence by shooting missiles toward Israel and
attacking ships in the Red Sea, causing minimal damage but disrupting the flow
of global trade. The US and its allies have targeted the group with repeated
airstrikes this month, further raising its profile, but the halting of shipping
has continued. The Houthis have declared that a direct battle with the US is
their goal.
Houthi leaders have seized numerous ships in a
righteous battle to force Israel to end the war in Gaza, where the Israeli
Occupation Forces (IOF) has killed more than 25,000 Palestinians since
October7 according to Gaza health authorities.
Now the Houthis, taking advantage of the
widespread anger over Israel’s conduct in the war, are speaking not only to
fellow Arabs but also to South Asians, Europeans, and Americans, many of whom
know little about the group and their history in Yemen.
“Victory in the battle of awareness is more
important than victory in the military battle,” a senior Houthi politician,
Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, wrote on X on Tuesday, promoting a YouTube video of an
interview he had done with an American writer.
On X, Al-Bukhaiti has been posting almost
exclusively in English in recent days, criticizing Western imperialism and the
“ruling Zionist cabal” while beseeching American followers to read the work of
leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky.
“I will spread my message to the peoples of
Western countries now, and I hope that the free people of the world will
re-spread it on the largest scale,” he wrote.
Many people with large social media followings
have been eager to share pro-Houthi messages in English, praising the group for
challenging Israel and its main ally, the United States.
“This is what they have been working toward
for years,” said Hannah Porter, an independent Yemen researcher who has studied
Houthi media. “They are very open about the fact that the so-called soft war,
meaning psychological warfare, is just as important, if not more important,
than warfare.”
The group began as a movement led by members
of the Houthi tribe. Its early communication strategies were decidedly
low-tech, including paper leaflets, Porter said. The Houthis described
themselves as an anti-imperialist force, battling against corruption and
foreign influence. In 2012, they expanded their narrative reach by founding
Al-Masirah, an Arabic-language television channel based in Beirut.
In 2014, the Houthis ousted the Yemeni
government. Saudi Arabia led an Arab military coalition into a yearslong
bombing campaign in Yemen in an attempt to rout the Houthis, and hundreds of
thousands of Yemenis died in the fighting, and of famine and disease.
Yet the Houthis not only survived that war
against the Saudis, who were aided by US military assistance and weapons, but
also thrived, setting up an impoverished quasi-state that they rule with an
iron fist. They now present themselves as the legitimate government of Yemen,
ignoring the internationally recognized government that operates largely in
exile.
Since the war in Gaza began, Houthi leaders
have presented themselves as courageous underdogs: the only Arab group willing
to take on Israel and the imperial might of the United States. In doing so,
they have played on the sense of impotency felt by many Arabs who are desperate
to stop the carnage in Gaza.
Powerful Arab states like Saudi Arabia have
focused on diplomacy to try to end the war, shunning the more forceful measures
that they once used to pressure Israel and its Western allies, like the 1973
oil embargo.
In that context, the Houthis have “pitched
themselves as the highly moral, credible, real heroes, if you will — of not
just Arabs, but humanity in general,” said Hisham Al-Omeisy, a Yemeni political
analyst.
“At least they are making an effort in a time
when other countries like Egypt and the Emirates did nothing for Palestine,”
said Baha’eddine Jomli, a 35-year-old Tunisian.
In Bahrain, a Persian Gulf kingdom that aided
the US-led coalition striking the Houthis, the Yemeni group has attracted
admiration from many citizens who are frustrated with their government’s
stance.
Ahmed El-Morshedy, a 30-year-old software
engineer in Egypt, said that while he does not support Houthi ideology and is
“very suspicious of their motives,” he finds it hard to condemn the militia’s
attacks in the Red Sea.
“They seem to be a desperate attempt to exert
pressure on the international community, particularly the United States, urging
intervention to halt the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” he said.
A Houthi spokesperson did not respond to a
request for comment. But last month, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a senior member of
the group, dismissed the idea that it was seeking popularity.
“We are not in elections,” he wrote in a post
on X. “Our stance is one of duty.”
Nadwa Al-Dawsari, a Yemeni nonresident scholar
at the Middle East Institute, said Houthi narratives are often directed toward
potential sympathizers on the Western left, tapping into anger over Gaza and
“the fear of America getting involved in another war.”
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