Policy Briefing

Britain today faces a stark moral and security test. An armed extremist movement – the Houthi insurgency of Yemen (officially Ansar Allah) – openly chants “Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews” while raining missiles on civilian targets beyond its borders. In early May 2025, a Houthi ballistic missile struck near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv, sending plumes of smoke over runways and injuring innocent travelers. That audacious attack on a sovereign nation’s main airport exemplifies the global reach and brazen brutality of the Houthi movement. It is intolerable that such a group remains legal in the United Kingdom. This briefing urges policymakers to immediately proscribe the Houthi movement under the Terrorism Act 2000 – a long-overdue step to defend British values, allies, and national integrity. In the morally urgent spirit of Bernard-Henri Lévy, we must recognize that to spare the Houthis a terrorist designation is to indulge barbarism under the false guise of political nuance. We owe better to our principles, our security, and our societal values.