Rights groups this week reminded the White House of its report in May that concluded that Israel’s use of U.S. weapons were likely “inconsistent” with international law.
President Joe Biden getting briefed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Oct. 9, 2023, about the Hamas assault on Israel two days earlier. (White House)
As U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller was telling reporters this week that assessments regarding whether Israel is abiding by international humanitarian law in Gaza are ongoing, more than two dozen rights groups were telling the Biden administration that it need look no further than its own memo released months ago to see that the U.S. must end its support for the Israeli military.
Groups including Amnesty International, the Center for Civilians in Conflict and Refugees International were among 25 organizations that signed a letter sent Tuesday to President Joe Biden; Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee; and their foreign policy advisers.
The letter was sent a day after the British government announced it was suspending 30 arms export licenses for Israel, citing “a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
In August alone, the Israeli military has bombed 5 schools in Gaza City, killing at least 179 people. pic.twitter.com/9TdJtbJy8W
— Prof Zenkus (@anthonyzenkus) August 17, 2024
The letter pointed out that it’s been nearly four months since the administration released its report on May 10 on National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20), which
“concluded that U.S.-provided arms had likely been used by Israeli security forces in manners ‘inconsistent with its IHL [international humanitarian law] obligations.'”
NSM-20, issued in February, required Secretary of State Antony Blinken to confirm that countries using U.S. weapons — including Israel, which has received more than 100 military transfers from the U.S. since last October — are not blocking U.S. humanitarian aid and are using the weapons in accordance with international law.
Miller with Blinken in June 2023. (State Department/ Chuck Kennedy, Public domain)
The groups on Tuesday noted that despite the finding in the May 10 report, the administration claimed that Israel’s assurances it had not used U.S. weapons in strikes that violated international law were “credible and reliable,” and that the U.S. would not suspend weapons transfers at that time.
The claim that Israel’s assurances were credible was in direct opposition to a leaked internal memo in which four State Department officials said they had “serious concern over non-compliance” with international law.
At least 40 people, mostly women and children, were killed and scores of others were injured when Israel bombed a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah late in the evening on Sunday, May 26.https://t.co/sj3XxXA17a
— Peoples Dispatch (@peoplesdispatch) May 27, 2024
The official assessment released in May also “stood in stark contrast to the realities in Gaza and across occupied Palestine and appeared to blatantly disregard both the requirements of U.S. law and policy and extensive documentation submitted by human rights and humanitarian organizations and independent experts,” reads the new letter.
It cites reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other groups that detailed how U.S. weapons have been used in attacks that killed civilians and could constitute war crimes.
Moreover, the letter states, “the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has only worsened” since the NSM-20 report, but the U.S. policy of providing “virtually unconditional military support for the Israeli government continues.”
The letter notes that the U.S. continues to support the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) despite continued restrictions on aid flowing into Gaza by Israel, with the level of aid entering Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem crossing dropping by more than 80 percent over the past three months.
“As a result of the compounding access and delivery challenges, malnutrition and the perpetual risk of famine remains rampant across Gaza,” wrote the groups.
“Since your May 10 report, the U.N. estimates a 300% increase in acute malnutrition in Northern Gaza, while the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading analyst on food insecurity, found in June that all of Gaza is at high risk of famine and 96% of the population is currently food insecure.”
Annie Shiel, U.S. advocacy director for the Center for Civilians in Conflict, noted that the Biden administration’s continued military support for Israel as famine takes hold of Gaza may violate the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act — Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
The Biden administration’s continued support for the IDF sends “a political signal of unconditional support for Israel’s conduct,” said Shiel. “The U.S. has the leverage to bring about a cease-fire — but chooses not to use it.”
Harris and Biden on Oct. 10, 2023, at the White House. (White House/ Lawrence Jackson)
The letter on Tuesday also pointed to numerous reports that U.S.-made weapons have been used by Israel in attacks that killed civilians since May 10, including:
- A strike that used U.S.-made GBU-39 guided bombs on a camp for internally displaced people in west Rafah on May 26, killing at least 36 people, including six children;
- A July 9 airstrike on a school that killed at least 27 people and used an American small-diameter bomb; and
- An Aug. 10 attack on a school in Gaza City that was being used as a shelter, which killed 93 people using a U.S. small-diameter bomb.
The groups wrote:
“These developments should compel the United States to suspend arms transfers to the Israeli government under the Conventional Arms Transfer policy, which prohibits arms transfers when ‘the United States assesses that it is more likely than not that the arms to be transferred will be used by the recipient to commit, facilitate the recipients’ commission of, or to aggravate risks that the recipient will commit’ serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law.”
The organizations urged “an immediate, public review of Israel’s compliance with NSM-20, accounting for the numerous apparent violations of international law and restrictions on humanitarian aid documented by civil society and the media since May 10 and throughout the NSM-20 reporting period.”
As U.S. support continues, said the groups, “the risk of United States’ and U.S. officials’ complicity in Israeli violations of international law due to U.S. arms transfers has only increased.”
“We urgently call upon your administration to change its approach and suspend weapons transfers to Israel, which continue to cause devastating harm and risk making the United States complicit in war crimes,” they wrote. “International and U.S. law, as well as your administration’s policies including NSM-20, require suspending weapons transfers to the Israeli government.”
Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
This article is from Common Dreams.
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
“$hut the front door!!!” [Biden-Harris] OWN This” Project 2020-2024:
? ….. October 7, 2023, Hamas militants “blindside” the Israeli Defense Forces, in Israel. It’s an all out war!!! Everywhere is Destruction & Death. Americans & Israelis kidnapped “hostages” tb leveraged.
AND, on OCTOBER 7, 2023, the USG’s White House’s POTUS, Biden-Harris, & FLOTUS, Biden’s doctor, “HOST a BBQ” with a “live” band, for the White House’s executive resident staff & their families!!!
TWO (2) DAYS LATER, October 9, 2023, President Joe Biden gets briefed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “Tony. Tony. Tony,” wtf?!?
… “a tragic Shakespearean submissive subservience and an historic cringing and groveling by a toadying old man, [Joseph Robinette Biden] the current King Lear of our White House.” Raouf Halaby 7.9.21
*Joe Biden Owns This. “For over 40 years Biden has been an ardent supporter of every foreign war and intervention, always in the vanguard of flexing military muscle over diplomacy, and perhaps the most ardent supporter of Israeli wars, brutality, settlement expansion, billions of unlimited taxpayer dollars (no questions asked) in outright gifts, and is fully supportive of human rights violations – whether it is Israel, the corrupt Gulf sheiks, or third world dictators.” Raouf Halaby 7.9.21
Blinken! Blinken!! Blinken!!! Blah. Blah. Blah. Yada. Yada. Yada. @ hXXps://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-and-israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-after-their-meeting-2/
BENYAMIN NETANYAHU, “Tony, my friend,” “[YOU] are taking that stand. America is taking that stand. Thank you for being here today. Thank you, America, for standing with Israel today, tomorrow, and always.”
ANTONY BLINKEN, “ Mr. Prime Minister, I’m grateful to be back in Israel in this incredibly difficult moment for this nation – but, in fact, for the entire world. If you’ll permit me a personal aside, I come before you not only as the United States Secretary of State, but also as a Jew.”
“My grandfather, Maurice Blinken, fled pogroms in Russia. My stepfather, Samuel Pisar, survived concentration camps – Auschwitz, Dachau, Majdanek. So, Prime Minister, I understand on a personal level the harrowing echoes that Hamas’s massacres carry for Israeli Jews – indeed, for Jews everywhere. In Israel, and everywhere, we will reaffirm the crystal-clear warning that President Biden issued yesterday to any adversary – state or non-state – thinking of taking advantage of the current crisis to attack Israel: “DON’T!!!” The [U$G’S GOT] Israel’s back.”
“As Israel’s defense needs evolve, we will work with Congress to make sure that they’re met. And I can tell you there is overwhelming – overwhelming – bipartisan support in our Congress for Israel’s security.” Antony Blinken
IMO, there’s NO F/DOUBT, “Tony. Tony. Tony,” w/his cold, black, bloody eyeballs, executes Biden’s-Harris’ MADness, Mutually Agreed Destruction. From the Fairbanks of Alaska to Beijing, China; from the West Bank of Jordan to the Gaza Strip; from Syria to Somalia; North, South, East, West; from sea to shining sea, on land, in air, under water, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Lloyd Austin wreak havoc aka deception, destruction death on planet Earth’s plant, animal & human life.
“Don’t Drink the Water,” Harris-Walz, “There’s Blood In the Water.”
……… For Example, 3.19.21, “US and Chinese officials have exchanged sharp rebukes in the first high-level talks between the Biden administration and China, taking place in Alaska.”
* “Joe Biden Owns This.” Andrew Mitrovica @ hxxps://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/10/19/joe-biden-owns-this
TY, CN. “Keep it Lit!” Ciao
Another day when we realise that the Rules Based International Order and International Law are two different things.
U.S. policy is obviously to annihilate the indigenous population of Palestine, not least to spare the U.S. continued international embarrassment for standing virtually alone in the world vetoing UNSC resolutions that would otherwise force Israel to comply with international law. Eliminating the Palestinians would eliminate resolutions to protect them.
Narrative being everything to the U.S. empire, eliminating the Palestinian people would permanently change the narrative. Make the problem disappear by killing everyone, in other words. By no means the first time the U.S. has employed this approach. Mass murder of left opposition in Chile, Argentina, Indonesia, and Iran are examples.
Maybe, perhaps, possibly “at risk” of violating international law. What a cruel joke.
The disturbing thing is that millions of people will go to the polls and vote for KH or DT, and Ds and Rs for Congress. Both candidates, both parties, the corporate oligarchy, as well as individual oligarchs like Gates, Bezos, Musk, Buffet et al. ALL support US genocide policy.
The gross hypocrisy: we are being told by the most “progressive” members of Congress (AOC, Bernard Sanders…) we must vote for Genocide to “save democracy”. The Orwellian DoubleThink should be glaringly obvious, the hypocrisy, the intelligence-insulting slap in the face should also be obvious.
The implicit message in so-called progressive outlets like Democracy Now!, Common Dreams and others is the same: we MUST vote for blue no matter who, in order to “stop Trump” and “save democracy”. Outlets like CN do not engage in such thinly-veiled partisan hypocrisy.
Despite the horrific crimes and atrocities, millions will go to the polls and enthusiastically vote for the R brand or the D brand of war, genocide, oligarchy, kleptocracy and authoritarianism. The hard, ugly fact: no matter what the outcome of Election Inc., the Bipartisan Consensus/Washington Consensus will continue, Genocide will continue, the health care crisis, housing crisis, environmental crisis will continue, distribution of income and wealth will become even more perverse, and oligarchy becoming even more entrenched.