With each passing day, a grim future for the Yemeni people grows ever more concrete. Such a future entails the perishing of more than half of its population due to consequences of the U.S.-backed Saudi war on the country. The only way to avert this gruesome fate is to force our public and private institutions to cease their role — and thus our role as well — in the utter destruction of Yemen at the hands of the Saudi-led coalition states enthusiastically supported by the West.

As UC students, employees and affiliates, we have a unique role in ending this crime against the Yemeni people. The UC has millions of dollars invested into the major weapons manufacturing firms profiting handsomely from the genocide of Yemen and working to perpetuate the current policy on Yemen. We must call on the UC to divest from the onslaught in Yemen, lest we continue our complicity in the blood-letting of the Yemeni people.

24 million Yemenis, which is 84% of the population, are currently in dire need of humanitarian aid. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.N. had referred to the situation in Yemen as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” More than 70% of the population were experiencing food insecurity and more than 30% of the population were at risk of famine. The pandemic will only accelerate the devastation of a defenseless population whose healthcare capacities have been decimated by Saudi coalition airstrikes and blockades. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres described Yemen as “hanging on by a thread.” No doubt, there is not much time before this thread unravels. 

Of course, these conditions don’t appear out of nowhere — they are the direct and obvious conclusion of the war aims and strategies pursued by the Saudi coalition. Report after report from journalists, academics, international organizations and human rights groups document how the Saudi-led coalition have deliberately and systematically targeted civilian infrastructure and civilians in their war in clear violation of international law. 

The U.N. has found that the leading cause of civilian death is due to Saudi coalition airstrikes. Roughly two-thirds of the airstrikes have targeted non-military targets or those labeled as “unknown.” Furthermore, recent scholarship has concluded that their policy has created the famine and cholera epidemic which compose the bulk of the humanitarian catastrophe. 

To quote Martha Mundy, the leading researcher on Yemen’s agricultural sector and author of a recent study titled “Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War,” the data demonstrates that “the Saudis are deliberately striking at agricultural infrastructure in order to destroy the civil society.” The off-the-record words of a Saudi diplomat responding to questions about Yemen’s famine illuminate the cruelty of the Saudi coalition’s campaign — “once we control them, we will feed them.”

Washington has provided enthusiastic support for the Coalition’s war on Yemen over the years. A statement from the White House reads, “[The U.S.] intends to remain the steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia.” U.S. aid in the form of intelligence, arms from U.S. weapons manufacturers, logistical support and diplomatic support is crucial to Saudi war efforts that have ravaged the population of Yemen. Estimates find that 70% of Saudi Arabia’s arsenal comes from U.S. arms manufacturers. Diplomats and experts alike have stated that without U.S. support, the Saudis would have likely called off the war.

Here’s where the UC comes in. The holdings report from the UC Office of the President  lists entities that the UC has purchased assets from along with their base market value. The report states that the UC holds assets to the sum of roughly $20 million in weapons manufacturers as of June 2020, including Lockheed-Martin, Boeing and General Electric. Some of the largest and richest weapons manufacturers in the world are profiting the most from this genocide consisting of bombardments of funerals, weddings and school buses. The UC ought to refuse to have the retirement plans of its employees bankrolled by the deaths of innocent people overseas. 

Calling on the university to divest is not only a moral requirement but a tactical one as well. Doing so pinpoints the cash flows of one of the central actors in perpetuating this war, which is crucial. In response to internal debates over U.S. military support for the Saudis, the State Department’s legislative staff, which is headed by a former Raytheon lobbyist, stated that any actions ceasing support for the Saudis would “negatively impact pending arms transfers.” This is of course an unacceptable “inconvenience” for the rich arms makers. However little this divestment may be alone, it has the potential to garner support from the students and staff of other educational institutions and trigger a momentum against the war.