Green Party of Pennsylvania
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, July 29, 2024
CONTACT:
Chris Robinson, Communication Team Co-Leader
267-977-0570 and [email protected]
PA Greens Appeal for Bombing Halt in Yemen
On July 11, the Steering Committee of the Green Party of PA (GPPA) called for an end to the U.S. bombing of Yemen. The Steering Committee has joined with more than 50 other organizations calling for the U.S. Senate to introduce a Yemen War Powers Resolution. This resolution would withdraw U.S. participation in hostilities in Yemen. In their letter to senators, the organizations call attention to the unconstitutional, ineffective airstrikes which have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Green Party organizer Jonathan Richards (Wyoming) requested the action from the GPPA Steering Committee. Richards said, "I oppose all war, it is a cowardly decision made by those who only wish to profit from it. In the case of Yemen, they have been defending the lives of Palestinians with every step they take. It's important to note the recent ruling by the International Court of Justice that the Israeli settlements are illegal as is their extraction of West Bank natural resources. We must learn to settle our political differences without violence, whether at home or abroad and to start treating all human life as precious. We need a global cessation of all offensive military action and a new global peace treaty to be enacted. Accountability must come for all of those complicit in war crimes both past and present as national and international law must be followed, human lives are literally at stake if they are ignored, and no one is above the law.”
GPPA Steering Committee Member Alex Casper (Philadelphia) explained, “The Green Party of Pennsylvania Steering Committee supports demands that the Senate call for an end to the unconstitutional war with Yemen. Non-violence is one of our 10 Key Values, and the Green Party promotes non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree and to guide our actions toward lasting personal, community and global peace.”
The letter to Senators warns, “As a movement that is non-partisan and ideologically diverse, we believe it is critical to ensure that the law and mechanisms of the War Powers Resolution cannot be accused of being wielded for partisan purposes. This means that even under a Democratic administration, senators must act in bipartisan fashion when the executive oversteps its authority, just as Congress did during the previous Republican administration. Accordingly, we urge you to move swiftly to rein in these unauthorized and unconstitutional strikes by introducing a War Powers Resolution to remove U.S. participation from hostilities in Yemen, until or unless Congress authorizes such action.”
The letter’s signers recognize the recent escalation in Yemen, including attacks on the Houthi Movement by U.S. and U.K. aircraft. “In early May, Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Houthi Red Sea activities will ‘remain active for some time,’ and Houthi military capacity to launch these attacks is not ‘likely to change in the near future,’ concluding that the U.S. strikes have been ineffective in stopping ‘the Houthis from going down this road.’ Far from being deterred, the Houthis have actually expanded the range of their attacks . . . .”
The GPPA’s Alex Casper spoke to this point, "We should be opposed to accelerating any military conflict, but we should stand and applaud any who sabotage those attempting genocide. The reason the Houthis are attacking ships in the Red Sea is because Israel is committing a scorched earth genocide in Gaza and escalating a conflict in Lebanon. The Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said shipping would not be interrupted if the U.S. stopped fueling the genocide in Gaza. Al-Houthi said, ‘The solution is to stop the war against the Gaza Strip and end the siege.’”
GPPA Secretary Nina Larbi (Montgomery) voted for the Steering Committee resolution. “I understand the Houthi’s response to attacking ships linked to Israel, as they are taking direct action whereas many Arab countries are not,” said Larbi. “This genocide in Gaza is so far the most documented. However, escalating violence in the region to the extent that war may be imminent is deeply concerning. The scale of destruction, disease, and death in Gaza is immense. Other countries like Syria and Lebanon have been hit repeatedly by Israeli strikes as well, and conflicts are ongoing in other parts of the region. This conflict is a direct result of states like the U.S. operating by proxy for control of natural resources and trade routes in the region. The peoples of the Middle East should not continually bear the consequences of conflict, when their resources should be theirs to exploit.”
The GPPA has now added its name to the ideologically diverse signatories of the letter circulated by the U.S.-based humanitarian advocacy organization Action Corps. Other signers included Avaaz, DAWN, Bring Our Troops Home, Common Defense, Defense Priorities Foundation, Demand Progress, Just Foreign Policy, the Libertarian Institute, MADRE, Peace Action, United Church of Christ, and the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation.
This action by the Steering Committee has met with widespread support among Green Party members and candidates for office. Leila Hazou (Pike), Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, explained, “All nations have a responsibility to prevent genocide if they see it occurring. This is exactly what Yemen is doing -- fulfilling its obligation to intervene. Yemen has issued warnings and has made it clear that it will not allow ships to pass until Palestinians in Gaza are allowed food and aid and the aggression stops. Any countries not intervening in some way at this point are complicit in the genocide of Palestinians.”
Richard Weiss (Allegheny), Green Party candidate for Pennsylvania Attorney General, similarly agreed with the Steering Committee’s action. Weiss said, “The war against Yemen does not solve the problem of Israel's illegal occupation and settlement of Palestinian territories. Instead, the war on Yemen only escalates and expands war in the Middle East generally, threatening to draw the U.S into a war with Iran which supports Yemen, and Russia which supports Syria. A third of Syria is also currently illegally occupied by Israel and the U.S. Therefore the solution to the underlying problem is to end illegal occupation and recognize Palestinian rights to self-determination.”
The Green Party of PA, https://www.gpofpa.org, is an independent political party which stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPPA candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party’s Four Pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity. For further information about GPPA, please email [email protected]. Please follow GPPA on social media: Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gpofpa/; Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/pagreenparty/; and Twitter, https://twitter.com/GreenPartyofPA.
For more information:
Our Ten Key Values, Green Party of the U.S.,
https://www.gp.org/ten_key_values
Letter, End Unauthorized U.S. Attacks on Yemen, July 10, 2024, Action Corps,
https://www.actioncorps.org/2024-yemen-letter.html
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