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Posted: June 19, 2025
The single most effective resistance force to the ‘Israeli’ genocide (outside of Palestine itself) has been Yemen’s Ansar-Allah. Since late 2023, the Yemeni resistance has been using their strategic placement near the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, a supremely strategic global shipping bottleneck, to prevent any ships related to ‘Israel,’ or assisting in their genocide from crossing the Straits, and proceeding to the Red Sea/Suez Canal. This blockade of the fastest sea route between Europe and Asia has expanded to direct strikes on ‘Israel,’ which have further restricted the Zionist entity’s ability to function in the international economy. The goal of the blockade is the end to the genocide in Gaza.
Since beginning with their Bab el-Mandeb blockade, dozens of attacks on ships defying the Yemeni blockade to deliver goods to ‘Israel’ have been attacked or even commandeered. This has led to ships trading with the Zionist entity being forced to round the Cape of Good Hope to get between Europe to Asia, adding anywhere from 40-400% extra travel time. This has been accompanied by massive spikes (~300%) in container freight rates (as can be seen in this chart from Freightender). The steadfast and thorough blockade has led to the closure of the ‘Israeli’ Port of Eilat, situated at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba. On July 12, 2024, the port of Eilat declared bankruptcy, with economic activity and cargo traffic almost completely ceasing in the eight months following the anti-genocide blockade’s initiation.
With their military capabilities (including both drones and ballistic missiles) continuing to develop as the war goes on, the Yemeni resistance has increasingly begun to threaten ‘Israeli’ Mediterranean Ports like Haifa and Ashdod, as well as airports such as Ben-Gurion International and Nevatim Air Base. Since ‘Israel’ is absolutely reliant on external material assistance from Western imperialist countries to continue its genocide in Gaza, and its quickly accelerating war with Iran, the ongoing crippling of their logistical chokepoints remains an existential threat to ‘Israel.’
‘Israel’ has invaded and/or launched wars of aggression against virtually all of its neighbours, which has made the Zionist entity a regional pariah in terms of trade. For this reason, among others like imperialist solidarity, 99.6% of trade volume (65% of trade weight) arrives by sea. Eilat, Haifa, and Ashdod handled ~80% of pre-blockade ‘Israeli’ shipping trade. The Eilat port has been put out of operations, and in May 2025, Ansar-Allah announced a similar blockade on the Haifa port, the Zionist entity’s largest and most important. As we will discuss in a moment, even outright American intervention cannot end the Yemeni blockade. So if ‘Israel’ refuses to end the Gaza genocide, they are functionally choosing to continue strangling their economy, not exactly an ideal strategy as the war with Iran continues to expand.
Another major ripple effect from the Yemeni blockade is the economic hit to Egypt from the traffic decrease through the Suez Canal. Canal traffic and revenue have both dropped ~⅔ from pre-blockade levels, costing the Egyptian state $7B in lost revenue in 2024. The economic situation in Egypt was bleak even before this blow to one of the cornerstones of its economy, but this is the price that the Egyptian military regime has paid for its collaboration with both Western Imperialism and its Zionist outpost. Look at the impressive resistance that Ansar-Allah has put up from 2,500 KM away. Egypt shares a border with Gaza, with the Rafah border crossing one of the main avenues for humanitarian aid (or current lack thereof). Imagine what an impact a similar Egyptian resistance could have, with Egypt’s population of 114M versus ~200,000 members of Ansar-Allah, and an economy 7x richer than Yemen’s, despite its current crisis. The shift from the Egyptian state as a committed defender of Palestinian liberation under Nasser, to an imperialist running dog under its subsequent leaders, must be reversed, so the will and solidarity of the Egyptian people can once more aid the Palestinian struggle.
Led by Ansar-Allah, the Yemeni resistance has been the epitome of courage, resilience, and anti-imperialism, with Yemen the only country on earth taking seriously its responsibility under international law to prevent and counteract genocide. (For anyone eager to question Ansar-Allah’s popular legitimacy, please review images and footage of any of the demonstrations in Sanaa since October 7.) To quote at length Craig Mokhiber, former director in the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who resigned over UN inaction and denial of the genocide in Gaza:
“The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has found, and the UN General Assembly (UNGA) has affirmed, that all states are obliged to cut off all military and economic support both for the Israeli regime’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and for its genocidal assault on the people of occupied Gaza. These legal findings are rooted in the highest-level rules of international law (so-called jus cogens and erga omnes obligations), including the prohibition of genocide, of aggression, of the acquisition of territory by force, and of acts that violate the right to self-determination. And these obligations bind all states. Yemen has acted concretely to meet them, by imposing a blockade on ships destined to resupply the Israeli regime at the Red Sea port of Eilat, and explicitly in response to the Israeli-imposed siege and genocide in Palestine.”
The humanitarian, anti-genocide blockade has even respected ceasefires that ‘Israel’ hasn’t, despite being a party to these agreements.
The Yemeni resistance is so strong and principled precisely because they understand the toll and severity of imperialist aggression and blockade. During the (ongoing) Yemeni Civil War, which brought the revolutionary Ansar-Allah government to power in a good portion of Yemen’s territory, a Saudi-led, Imperialist-backed coalition began bombing Yemen in 2015, before beginning a total blockade in 2017. This created horrific conditions of famine and disease outbreak, similar to those we’re seeing in Gaza, but failed to accomplish any military aims. In 2025, the American Navy was turned on Ansar-Allah, still to no avail. In the war of several months, the Yemeni resistance brought down American drones and even caused the loss of several fighter jets, falling over the edge of aircraft carriers scrambling to avoid Yemeni missiles.
The Yemeni blockade, led by Ansar-Allah, has shown bravery and effectiveness against imperialist aggression and Zionist genocide. Like the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, they will not be defeated, no matter the crisis created by ‘Israel’ or the USA. As socialist economists, we must laud their fight against imperialism, the greatest obstacle to building a socialist economy.
In our next post, we will return to our Working Class University series, continuing with our look at microeconomics and macroeconomics from a socialist economics perspective. If you're interested in these ideas, don't hesitate to reach out. This project is a conversation, not a lecture, so all good faith feedback is encouraged, especially from trained economists.