Yemenis have been emotionally attached to the Palestinian cause since its early days. It was stated - for example - in the biography of Professor Al-Noaman that when he arrived in Cairo in the late 1930s, specifically in (1938), he went to visit the Palestinian journalist and publisher of Al-Shura newspaper, Mohammad Ali Al-Taher, and introduced himself to him as Ahmed Mohammad Noaman – from Dhuban, Yemen. Al-Taher welcomed him very warmly, then introduced his guest to his colleagues and talked about his role in backing Palestine resistance since he had been collecting some donations from people and philanthropists in his area to support Palestine, and sent these donations to him in Palestine, wrapped and stamped in his beautiful handwriting under his name. In recognition of the role played by Al-Noaman, it became the subject of Hassan Shukri Ziwar’s book entitled (Al-Noaman’s Leadership Centrality for the Liberals in Supporting Palestine: The Great Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 as a Model).

In nearly ninety years of this initiative, the Yemeni popular tendency to support the Palestinian resistance was present at its most important stages, beginning in the year of the first Nakba in 1948 and the second in 1967, through September 1970 (Black September), and the summer of 1982 when Zionist forces invaded Beirut to expel the Palestinian resistance from it.

As a result, Yemen hosted some Palestinian forces and families in North and South Yemen, and they were received with great warmth, and two large camps were opened for them. The first was in the vicinity of Sana'a and was called (Sabra Camp), and the second was located outside the city of Aden and was called (The Camp of Shatila).

As they feel fully safe and secured in their second homeland in Yemen, dozens of Palestinian families settled in Yemeni cities, and some of them became part of the social fabric by through marrying to Yemenis. Before that, dozens of Yemeni volunteers were part of the Palestinian-Lebanese resistance factions that confronted the Israeli occupation forces in southern Lebanon, and many still remember the steadfastness of the Yemenis in the famous battle of Lebanon Beaufort Castle, in which some of them were martyred.

In the first uprising in 1987, Yemen witnessed major support campaigns and major political and cultural festivals, and among those solidarity events I still remember: (The Symposium of Thought, Art and Culture in Support of the Palestinian Intifada), which was sponsored by Sana’a University under the supervision of its late president, Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Maqaleh, and was attended by many Arab intellectuals, thinkers, writers, and artists.

The conscience of the Yemenis is popularly united in sympathy with the first central issue of the Arabs, due to national and religious motives, and because of the symbolism that the land of Palestine and its capital, Jerusalem in particular, represents for Arabs and Muslims. Governments and ruling authorities usually go along with this popular sympathetic tendency to present themselves as its voice, which is something that is exposed by secret alliances that serve their benefits with the influential forces that support the occupying state.

In the second intifada (Al-Aqsa Intifada), the Yemenis had a clear moral support presence, as tens of schools and streets were marked by its Palestinian martyrs and figures, such as the martyr Mohammad Al-Durrah, who was killed by the occupation forces in front of the eyes of the world in September 2000, while he was along with his father in Gaza. And here the Yemenis today are following with all their hearts concerned with the bloody events in Gaza, and condemning the Zionist killing machine and its supporters from the racist governments of the West.

In all these years, the conscience of the Yemenis has been popularly united in sympathy with the first central issue of the Arabs, due to national and religious motives, and because of the symbolism that the land of Palestine and its capital, Jerusalem in particular, represents for the Arabs and Muslims. Governments and ruling authorities usually go along with this sympathetic popular tendency to present themselves as their voice, something that is exposed by their secret alliances and benefits with the influential forces that support the occupying state. As is the case today with the central powers in the West, which support the military operation in Gaza with their racist and criminal tendencies, and their disregard for the war of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and population displacement by the Zionists. Such governments and forces, which raise slogans of resistance, do not take any serious step to stop the ongoing Zionist genocide against Palestinian civilians.

It is worth noting that, throughout the eight years of war in Yemen, we did not witness any common issue that united the Yemenis in the south and north as the bloody events in Gaza which brought them together recently. This was obvious through the popular demonstrations in support of Palestinian steadfastness in the face of the Zionist killing machine which took place in all Yemeni cities despite the attempts of the de facto authorities to subvert it in favor of their crude political slogans.