The State Department has sent a report to Congress in which it recognizes that “it is reasonable to assess” that Israel has violated international humanitarian law in Gaza. However, he considers that they do not have sufficient evidence that they have used American weapons for this, so he will not block the shipment of weapons to the Jewish state.
According to the report, ordered in February by President Joe Biden in the face of pressure from the progressive bloc in Congress to condition military aid, “Israel has not shared complete information to verify” human rights violations with its weapons. In fact, he assures that the guarantee made by the Israeli war cabinet that it would use its weapons in accordance with international law is “credible and reliable.”
“Given Israel’s considerable dependence on American-made defense articles, it is reasonable to consider that Israeli security forces have used defense articles since October 7 in cases incompatible with their [international humanitarian law] obligations or with the best practices.” practices established to mitigate harm to civilians,” the report states.
The decision to delay the shipment of 3,500 bombs to Israel, taken last week due to fear of an imminent attack on Rafah, is independent of the conclusions of this report, which assesses the war in Gaza from January 1 to the end of April . Rafah was a red line and Biden maintains the warning that if the invasion is carried out, the weapons will be blocked.
However, the report finds no reason to limit the annual flow of military aid of $3.8 billion or the additional assistance of $26 billion approved last month in Congress.
That is what the progressive sector is asking for: conditioning aid on respect for international law, as US law has mandated since the Cold War. Specifically, it prohibits the shipment of weapons to third countries that “involve a consistent pattern of serious violations of internationally recognized human rights.”
The report sent to Congress is critical – although contained – of Tel Aviv and goes so far as to affirm that it “did not cooperate sufficiently” with the US government in the first months after the Hamas incursion of October 7, which left some 1,200 dead in Israel. and unleashed a war of revenge from Beniamin Netanyahu’s government. Since then, more than 34,000 Palestinians have died, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, and the displaced number in the millions.
Last week, 88 members of Congress sent a letter to the president in which they supported “Israel’s right to self-defense” but expressed “serious concerns” with its blockade of humanitarian aid and stated that there is “sufficient evidence” that the law has been violated. American federal by supplying weapons to the Jewish state.
The conclusions of the report presented today deny that there is definitive evidence that American weapons have been used to violate human rights, despite the fact that Biden acknowledged this week that “indiscriminate bombings” have produced civilian victims. Regarding humanitarian aid, the State Department states that “we do not appreciate that the Israeli government is prohibiting or restricting the transportation of American humanitarian assistance,” so federal law is respected.
An independent Amnesty International report last month assessed that Israel is using US weapons “in serious violation of international humanitarian and human rights law, and in a manner incompatible with US law and policy.” An example cited is the bombing of the Jabalya refugee camp on October 9, which left 39 victims, two days after the Hamas incursion into Israel.
Meanwhile, on college campuses across the country, students are resisting a wave of mass arrests and the dismantling of their camps. In Washington, where no violence has been reported in the protests, police removed tents from George Washington University on Wednesday and arrested 33 people. Last night they camped again in front of the center’s administrative building and the police acted again. A scene that has been repeated in the main universities of New York, Los Angeles and Pennsylvania, among other cities.
