BIGGEST GAZA DEMONSTRATION TO DATE IN SANAA, BUT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANAA 000151

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

FOR NEA/ARP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/25/2018
TAGS: PGOV KPAL PREL YM
SUBJECT: BIGGEST GAZA DEMONSTRATION TO DATE IN SANAA, BUT
WHO ARE THE PARTICIPANTS?

Classified By: DCM Angie Bryan for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) For the fourth day out of five, crowds of Yemenis took
to the streets on January 26 to demonstrate in support of the
Palestinians in the Gaza strip. This demonstration, the
largest to date, was estimated by the Regional Security
Office to have included more than 100,000 people. When
discussing the demonstrations, one embassy Locally Employed
Staffer told EmbOff that he had kept his children out of
school. EmbOff asked if this was out of fear of the crowds
and the staff member replied that it was not. He said that
his 13- and 14-year-old sons had been pulled out of class by
school administrators on January 23 and bused to that day's
demonstration. He feared that the same thing would happen
again. His story echoed that of American students who live
near Tahrir Square who told PAO that they had seen
school-aged children who beg at street corners being loaded
into buses going to the demonstrations.


2. (C) When asked about the possibility of students being
taken out of class and bused to demonstrations, another
embassy employee with strong economic contacts said that he
doubted very seriously that it would happen on January 26
because public school mid-term exams had begun. This same
employee, however, noted that he had firsthand knowledge of
government ministries sending employees to participate in
public demonstrations. He carefully avoiding confirming or
denying that this had been the case in the recent
demonstrations in support of the Palestinians. Mohammed
Fakher, who works in the office of Deputy Assistant Foreign
Minister Khaled al-Akwa, forcefully denied that any Ministry
employees had been directed to participate in the
demonstrations, pointing out that MFA employees had been
specifically directed not to attend the January 26
demonstrations. This was not apparently the case throughout
the entire government, as embassy employees attempting to
clear air shipments through customs gave up and returned to
the embassy because the entire customs staff that handles
cargo shipments were unavailable, having "gone to the
demonstration."


3. (C) Comment. Public demonstrations in support of the
Palestinian cause provide the ROYG a welcome distraction from
citizen unhappiness with the ROYG's shortcomings. While
there is enough pro-Palestinian sentiment in Yemen to support
strong public demonstrations without busing in students to
fill out the crowds, photos of the January 26 protests
clearly show groups of young men in school uniforms, in spite
of the beginning of mid-term exams. If some portion of the
demonstrators are actually students and government employees
who have been directed to attend, this may explain the
tendency for the demonstrations to end peacefully in the
early afternoon, when many Yemenis would normally leave work
to go buy their day's supply of qat.
SECHE