Houthis offer university places to students suspended due to protests in the US

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militia, which disrupted global shipping to demonstrate its support for Palestinians in the Gaza conflict, is offering places to students suspended from US universities after holding protests against the war in Gaza.

Students have gathered or set up tents on dozens of campuses across the United States in recent days to protest Israel's war in Gaza, now in its seventh month.

Protesters called on President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel's right to defend itself, to do more to stop the bloodshed in Gaza and demanded that schools divest from companies that support the Israeli government.

Many of the schools, including the Ivy League Columbia University in New York City, called the police to quell the protests.

“We are serious about welcoming students who have been suspended from US universities for supporting the Palestinians,” an official at the Houthi-run University of Sanaa told Reuters. “We are fighting this battle with Palestine in every way we can.”

Sanaa University issued a statement applauding the “humanitarian” stance of the students in the United States and said they could continue their studies in Yemen.

“The university board condemns what academics and students at U.S. and European universities are being subjected to, the suppression of freedom of expression,” the university board said in a statement, which included an email address for any student who wished to accept the offer.

The US and Britain placed the Houthi militia back on a list of terrorist groups this year as their attacks on ships in and around the Red Sea have damaged global economies.

The Houthi offer of education to American students has sparked a wave of vitriol from ordinary Yemenis on social media. A social media user posted a photograph of two Westerners chewing Qat leaf, a narcotic widely used in Yemen. He described the scene as that of American students during their fifth year at Sanaa University.