The Jamal Khashoggi case spread over the media rapidly. After all, it has everything that grabs people’s attention: mystery, shock, gore, and unanswered questions. The case unfolded before our eyes with new information revealing another side of the story every day. With the number of sources and reports constantly hurled at us, it feels almost as if we are all part of this narrative; self-appointed detectives trying to find out for ourselves what happened to the Saudi journalist. We get so preoccupied, that we forget about the more significant issue regarding Saudi Arabia – the Yemeni war.
Khashoggi’s case may not make a huge difference in the world of politics – as many governing administrations and significant worldwide companies use Saudi Arabia’s money. Still, the publicity of this murder is significant. It is being used by Turkish president Erdoğan to re-shape the image of his country, and is also being treated as a bargaining chip in the attempt to alter politics in the Middle East. However, Mohammad Bin Salman and his country should answer for the much heavier allegations that is the Saudi intervention in neighbouring Yemen for the last few years.
The UN repeatedly mentions Yemen as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Yet, no one seems to care, leaving thousands of Yemeni sentenced to a slow and painful demise. Earlier this year the UN warned that over 22 million people require humanitarian aid, with the majority of them facing famine or infection from a rising cholera epidemic. So how is it possible that the death of one man gets so much attention, and the lives of millions seem to mean nothing?
The conflict in Syria and Gaza manifests the downfall of the West’s intervention in the Middle East, but at least this is somehow present in the news. Yemen became the image of a war that everyone seems to be aware of but does nothing about it. Saudi uses banned cluster bombs, weapons prohibited back in 2008 for their high danger of civilians casualties.
These bombs explode in the air above the target, releasing smaller submunitions and causing huge death, damage and injuries as they rip apart their victims’ flesh. The world is concerned when Saudi torturers cut the fingers off a journalist whilst he is still alive – politicians are reproving Riyadh, and companies are cutting loose from Vision 2030. But such reactions are not triggered by bombs tearing apart starving children in Yemen. Torture and torment are the norms in there, yet the world remains indifferent.
How would we explain to a Yemeni child that his or her life is worth less than the life of a world-renowned journalist? How will a mother answer her children when they ask why the West does not sanction Saudi Arabia for their slaughter in Yemen? People protest to stop selling guns to Saudi Arabia, to crush their control. The anger is getting louder and louder, but certainly, the same cries for economic and diplomatic embargos should refer to Yemen, given Saudi’s responsibility for the large scale of human suffering. How can anyone in Yemen think about hope if all they hear from the West is silence? The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions? A statistic.
We are afraid to say what needs to be said. Why? Because Saudi Arabia bought the right to be above the law, to coordinate the deaths of millions of innocents whose only crimes are being born in Yemen. When in 2015 a Saudi Arabian-led intervention army, supported by Americans, Britain and other Western countries, began conquering Yemen, they promised it will would take a few weeks. Yet the Yemeni fought back and the resistance continues, exposing the fall of humanity and this emphatic paralysis.
The repercussions are extensive. Due to the malnutrition and the lack of sanitary infrastructure, Yemen is experiencing the largest cholera epidemic in the world. Humans weakened by months of malnutrition give up easily against this kind of infection. It is said that every ten minutes a child dies as a result of famine or sickness. But we don’t know about it. The picture of Amal Hussain became a symbol of disaster that is Yemen. But now she’s dead, starved to death, and she will forever stay only that – a symbol. And the West loves symbolism.
Even when we hear about a bomb that hit a school bus killing 40 children, the public opinion shows nothing but a momentary sigh of horror that is gone the next day. We don’t know their names, their families, their stories. We don’t hear their screams when they lose their limbs, or cries for food when they didn’t eat anything in days. Yet Khashoggi occupies every screen, every news portal in every nation. Even those who don’t care about politics, who have no idea what is happening outside their own country, know about Khashoggi. Yemeni became abstract dead bodies. And this benumbed abstraction is mainly created by deliberate exclusion, or – as some may say – misleading information by Western media concerning the savageness of the Saudi regime.
The media infected the Western public with apathy. Yemeni victims are faceless and nameless, anonymous statistics that no one reads. Some say it’s because the material is so graphic and brutal. When one sees the pictures of the famine, of the extreme poverty – those images stick in our memory and force emotional reactions. Perhaps we should not be so wary of breaking the illusion of the world that we, those who live in the countries currently not at war, created in our heads.
We shouldn’t protect ourselves from these images that cause nightmares and may make us cry. Because they are not horror movies, or creations of twisted minds – they are the reality. The reality we don’t want to admit to, because we cannot endure such pain. Yet we must see them, we must be bombarded by their stories so we understand what is happening on the other side of the world. We must use our privileges and help those who are trapped in this war of greed and territorial disputes.
Because it not just Saudi Arabia that should be brought to justice for the war in Yemen. It’s the entire world. If we do not oppose crimes against humanity we become criminals ourselves. The world is used to nightmares. BBC once called the Yemeni War a ‘forgotten war’. But it is only forgotten because we decided to do so.
