Yemeni protesters chant anti-Israeli slogans

Tens of thousands of Yemeni protesters have chanted anti-Israeli slogans during a funeral procession for an assassinated lawmaker in the capital, Sana’a.
Yemeni protesters chant anti-Israeli slogans
On Tuesday, the Yemenis voiced their anger with the Israeli regime during the funeral procession for Houthi lawmaker Abdul Karim Jadban.

Jadban, gunned down by armed men on November 22, was a prominent Houthi lawmaker and the leading politician representing the Houthi community in the national dialog currently underway in the Arab country.

Jadban’s body was carried by his Houthi supporters to the Sana’a airport and flown to the northwestern province of Sa’ada for burial.

The assassination came just weeks after deadly clashes between Houthi fighters and Saudi-backed Salafi militants in the town of Dammaj.

The Houthis, who control parts of the north and are engaged in reconciliation talks with Sana’a, accuse the government of violating their civil rights and marginalizing them politically, economically, and religiously.

The conflict between the government of ousted dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh and Houthi fighters in northern Yemen began in 2004.

The Houthi movement played a key role in the popular revolution that forced Saleh to step down. Yemen’s Shia Houthi movement draws its name from the tribe of its founding leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi.

Saleh, who ruled Yemen for 33 years, stepped down in February 2012 under a US-backed power transfer deal in return for immunity, after a year of mass street demonstrations demanding his ouster.

His vice president, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, replaced him on February 25, 2012 following a single-candidate presidential election backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia.