Prominent anti-Israel actors and terror leaders were hosted by the Houthis in Sanaa, Yemen, for a conference titled “Palestine: The Central Issue of the Nation – You Are Not Alone.”
The four-day conference kicked off on Saturday with wide international participation from the pro-Iranian axis and beyond, including Hamas representative in Yemen Muath Abu Shamala; American political activist Jackson Hinkle; Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, former South African politician and grandson of Nelson Mandela; former Irish member of European Parliament Mick Wallace; American activist Christopher Helali; and Brazilian journalist Deb Escobar.
Pictures from the event showed the hall adorned with pictures and quotes of dead pro-Iranian leaders, including Iranian supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini; IRGC general Qasem Soleimani; Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar; Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah; and Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesperson Abu Hamza, with the Houthi slogan “Allah is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, a Curse upon the Jews, Victory to Islam” covering one of the walls.
The main speakers included high-ranking Houthi official Abdelaziz Bin Habtoor, former Iraqi prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, and Abu Shamala, all of whom lauded Hamas’s October 7 massacre and commended the Houthis for “aiding” Hamas. The speakers also rejected the “failed” path of negotiations in Oslo, deeming Israel an “imperialist, colonialist entity.”
For his part, Mandela, who converted to Islam several years ago under the auspices of a Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated sheikh, praised Hamas’s “armed resistance’ and said Israel was unable to defeat the resistance so far, praising the South African stance of support for Gaza.
Imperialism is the 'source of terror'
Wallace also denounced imperialism as “the source of terror,” deeming Europeans who support the “genocide in Gaza” as “barbaric” and lauding Houthi-controlled Yemen as “one of the few countries adhering to international law.”
This is not the first time in the past weeks that Western activists attended an event led by the pro-Iranian axis. Less than a month ago, Hinkle, Helali, and others were invited to attend Nasrallah’s funeral in Beirut while also taking part in a “birthright” style trip to southern Lebanon.
According to sources on the ground, arrival to Sanaa is not possible without coordination with or invitation from the Houthi terror movement. For this reason, some bloggers on X/Twitter have called to investigate who covered the expenses of the Western activists and whether the collaboration with terror-designated entities could be considered a crime.