The State Department accuses Palestinians and Palestinians of deliberately circumventing decades of U.S. human rights law to continue funding Israeli military units accused of committing widespread atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories. He faces a new lawsuit filed by an American of descent.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, challenges victims of alleged human rights violations over the State Department’s failure to sanction Israeli security forces under the Leahy Act, a 1990s law that prohibits military aid to American forces. This is the first time that they have lodged an objection. It is clearly involved in serious human rights violations.
Plaintiffs include Amal Gaza, a pseudonymous math teacher from Gaza who lost 20 members of his family. Shawan Jabarin, head of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, endured six years of arbitrary detention in the West Bank. And Ahmed Moore, a Palestinian American who has relatives in Gaza, has been repeatedly displaced by ongoing Israeli military attacks. (Mr. Moore has written an opinion piece for the Guardian.) Along with two other plaintiffs, they are asking for judicial intervention to force the United States to comply with the law.
The legal challenge comes as the death toll in Gaza since last October reportedly approaches 45,000 and humanitarian aid to the region is severely restricted. refers to an attempt to force the government to implement laws that are deemed effective in doing so. by foreign military units in Central America, Colombia, Nepal and other countries.
The Leahy Act is intended to prohibit foreign governments from providing U.S. assistance to security forces that the United States deems ineligible because of serious human rights violations. But as one former state official told the Guardian earlier this year, “the rules were different in Israel.”
The lawsuit was filed in Washington, D.C. District Court.
Saeed Asari, a Palestinian American whose six family members have been killed in airstrikes in the Gaza Strip since Israel’s shelling and invasion began last year, is also joining the lawsuit.
“I have close relatives, cousins and other family members who were killed in Israeli airstrikes,” Assari told the Guardian. “As Americans, this is a clear violation of the law, a violation that the State Department is actively and aggressively committing, using our tax dollars.”
The indictment alleges a series of violations committed by U.S.-backed Israeli military units, including torture, long-term detention without charge, enforced disappearances, and acts that the plaintiffs describe as amounting to genocide in Gaza. focused.
The report cites findings by international judicial bodies such as the International Criminal Court, which led to arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. was rejected by the United States. It also points to cases from before October 7, when an investigation under the Leahy Act was ultimately dismissed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, including the 2022 death of 78-year-old Omar al-Assad in the West Bank. I am doing it.
The State Department declined to comment.
A Guardian investigation published in January found that U.S. government officials had secretly investigated more than a dozen alleged serious human rights violations by Israeli security forces since 2020, but ultimately found no one responsible. It was discovered that the United States had implemented special bureaucratic measures to maintain access to U.S. weapons. unit. The investigation found that other allied military forces backed by the United States, including Ukraine, sources said, have been privately sanctioned and face punishment for human rights violations. , it turned out that special mechanisms have been used for the past few years to protect Israel.
Reuters reported in April that some senior U.S. officials privately expressed doubts to Blinken about Israel’s commitment to using U.S.-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law. That same month, a coalition of 185 Biden administration and private-sector lawyers argued that it believed Israeli military action was likely to violate U.S. humanitarian law, and then 20 White House officials objected in November. People also repeated this claim.
The plaintiffs are represented by Dawn, a human rights organization founded by Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered by Saudi agents.
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“This is a historic righting for the State Department’s decades-long refusal to comply with laws requiring limits on military aid to Israel’s human rights-abusing forces,” said Sarah Lee Whitson, Dawn’s executive director. It’s a significant initiative.”
She added, “What the State Department wants the world to believe is that Israeli forces have never committed serious human rights violations.” It goes against the State Department’s own human rights report.”
Despite internal and external barrage, the Biden administration has consistently maintained “ironclad” support for Israel. A State Department committee recommended months ago that Mr. Blinken block U.S. aid to several Israeli military and police units accused of serious human rights abuses, but the secretary of state has yet to act.
Biden has long rejected calls to limit military aid to Israel, other than suspending plans to ship 2,000-pound bombs. Congress has also rejected efforts to cut aid, including a resolution introduced by Bernie Sanders in November to block additional arms sales to Israel.
Assari himself acknowledges that challenging the U.S. government on Israel policy is an uphill climb. He said the judicial action is just one part of a broader strategic effort to track human rights violations and change public discourse.
“It may feel like a waste, but I think it’s the right thing to do and part of a wave of action that will ultimately lead to change,” he said. “Every movement for social justice, whether it’s the history of slavery, women’s suffrage, or opposition to war, has taken decades.”
