A new documentary film explores a drawn-out court battle involving the UK government and a campaign group which tried to stop it selling arms to human rights-abusing Saudi Arabia, which has terrorised Yemen for years.
Don’t Buy A Bomb: calling out Britain and Saudi Arabia
Demilitarise Education (dED_UCATION) has released a new documentary film directed by Eva McQuade, following the inner workings of a High Court of Justice appeal.
The events that take place are a culmination of a six-year judicial battle in which Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) took the UK government to court over the legality of its arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Since the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen began in 2015, at least 154,000 Yemeni citizens have been killed as a result of military action, with British-made weaponry playing a central role. If international humanitarian law does not permit assaults on non-combatants, then how can the government justify its complicity in these war crimes?
The film offers the opportunity to engage with the issue from multiple perspectives, ranging from Erin Alcock and Dearbhla Minogues – solicitors on the case – to Amina Atiq, a British-Yemeni poet who uses her art as a means of activism.
The film combines carefully curated archive footage, which acts as visible evidence of the atrocities committed, with expertise from professionals in the field. In doing so, we see that what Liz Truss called ‘isolated incidents’ are, actually, mass scale arms deals deeply embedded within ‘diplomatic’ relationships between the UK and its allies.
Feinstein: Britain has propped up Saudi assault on Yemen
Contributor to the film Andrew Feinstein is executive director of Shadow World Investigations. He said:
BAE, through the British state, provides significant numbers of advisers to the Saudi air force… the planes that are involved in most of the airstrikes over Yemen and a lot of the ordinance that is released from those planes, the bombs, the missiles that rain down on innocent Yemenis.
After the unjust dismissal of CAAT’s case by the High Court of Justice in June 2023, this documentary is more important than ever to ensure that the government’s continuous evasion of the law is held under scrutiny. In alignment with what Fallon eloquently expresses above, the documentary is a necessity to not only inform but inspire action through enforcing transparency.
Katie Fallon, advocacy manager at CAAT, said:
This film is so important as it shows that campaigners and members of the public can take action, speak truth to power, and disrupt the cycles of violence that our government commits us to.
Nine years after the bombardment of Yemen began, in 2024 the UK is not only bombing Yemen directly, but is complicit in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and selling arms to Israel again in violation of UK law. In the face of so much horror, the global public has spoken out in our thousands, millions, and billions, standing in solidarity with each other to build a peaceful and just future.
Without such a film, the judicial system can escape public accountability in its failure to enforce national and international law.
Yemen will ‘persist in its pursuit of justice’ against Saudi Arabia and UK
Cindy Sasha produced the film. She said:
When I learnt about CAAT’s court case in 2021, I knew this was an important story to be told. Film is a great medium to allow us to document the truth and share it with the world. This film exposes our corrupt justice system and how power is above the law and how the law chooses profit over people.
By making the film, dED_UCATION has solidified the moment in history, encouraging audience engagement and political action. It is a tangible story in which Western imperialism, the military-industrial complex, and neocolonialism interact. However, it offers hope in the way of re-imagining a future in which citizens refuse to sit back and allow their government to commit war crimes.
The documentary serves to pay respect to the people of Yemen, through making their suffering visible, thus providing an opportunity for solidarity.
As poet and activist Amina Atiq summed up:
The film is greater than a political disagreement, it calls for moral and ethical responsibility from our British Government. The arms trade between Britain and Saudi Arabia has only led to the tragic loss of lives in Yemen. We will continue to revisit this historic relationship of arms as unlawful, inhumane and it is a crime. Our Yemen will persist in its pursuit of justice.
You can watch the film on dED_UCATION’s YouTube channel below:
Featured image via dED_UCATION
