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u s state department
Senators Decry Biden's Decision to Fully Fund Egypt Despite Ongoing Rights Abuses
"Over the last year, for every single political prisoner Egypt has released, it has jailed two more," lamented U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy.
Sep 12, 2024
Several Democratic U.S. senators on Thursday denounced the Biden administration's decision to send $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt despite enduring human rights abuses by the Middle Eastern country's authoritarian regime.
U.S. State Antony Blinken this week waived human rights conditions attached to $225 million of the aid package, citing Egypt's strategic importance and the country's role in attempts to broker a cease-fire agreement that would halt the assault on Gaza by Israel, which is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
"It's no secret that Egypt remains a deeply repressive autocratic state."
"This decision waives requirements on an additional $225 million of military aid to Egypt that is tied to broader improvements on democracy and human rights," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct.) said in a statement on Thursday.
"It's no secret that Egypt remains a deeply repressive autocratic state, and I see no good reason to ignore that fact by waiving these requirements," the senator added. "We have previously withheld this portion of Egypt's military aid package, while still maintaining our strategic relationship, and we should continue to do so."
On Wednesday, Murphy and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) issued a joint statement decrying Biden's decision to fully fund Egypt, focusing on a separate $95 million share of aid released by the administration.
"The law is clear: Egypt is required to make 'clear and consistent progress' in releasing political prisoners in order to receive $95 million—a small portion—of its $1.3 billion military aid package this year," the senators wrote. "The Egyptian government has failed that test."
"Over the last year, for every single political prisoner Egypt has released, it has jailed two more," Murphy and Coons noted. "That's not clear and consistent progress—it's one step forward and two steps back. And among the thousands and thousands of political prisoners the government has continued to refuse to release are two U.S. legal permanent residents, Hosam Khalaf and Salah Soltan."
Last week, Murphy and Coons were among the nine Democratic senators and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) who urged Blinken to "enforce the conditions set forth by Congress on holding Egypt accountable for progress on human rights" by withholding aid "until Egypt's human rights record improves."
According to the most recent State Department annual country report, "there were no significant changes in the human rights situation in Egypt" between 2022-23.
The report cited violations including:
Credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearance; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; political prisoners or detainees; transnational repression against individuals in another country; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; punishment of family members for alleged offenses by a relative.
"Egypt has failed to make consistent progress, yet the State Department has decided to release additional military aid," Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said on Thursday. "The administration should use the leverage Congress provided to defend the fundamental rights of Egyptian political prisoners and dissidents. That's what the Egyptian people, and people everywhere, rightly expect of the United States."
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Is US Rethinking Arms Exports to Israel After UK Halt? Biden Official Says 'No'
"Matthew Miller and the U.S. State Department's spokespeople will be forever remembered as a face of this genocide," said one observer.
Sep 03, 2024
Palestine defenders hopeful that the United Kingdom's announcement of a partial suspension of arms export licenses to Israel were left disappointed on Tuesday after a U.S. State Department official said the Biden administration was not considering any similar move.
Asked by CBS News national security reporter Olivia Gazis during a daily press conference if the U.K.'s decision "changed the U.S.' position on whether international humanitarian rights have been violated" by Israel or if the U.S. is "rethinking any of its arms exports," Miller said "no."
"This is a decision that the United Kingdom made based on its assessments under its own laws," he said. "We have our assessments that are ongoing when it comes to looking at possible violations of international humanitarian law, and those continue to be ongoing."
Miller—who has admitted that the Gaza death toll could be even higher than the figure claimed by Palestinian authorities—added that there are "a number of incidents" committed by Israeli forces that "remain under review."
Pressed by Reuters foreign policy correspondent Hümeyra Pamuk how "two countries with pretty similar values" are "looking at the same battlefield and coming with very different conclusions," Miller said that "we have not reached conclusions."
"We have reviews that are ongoing, and we haven't made any final determinations or any final conclusions yet," he continued.
Miller said that the U.K. makes "their determinations based on the standard that is written in U.K. law. We will make our determinations based on the standard based in U.S. law, which I don't think is that hard to understand."
"We've said that it's reasonable to assess that there have been violations of international humanitarian law committed," Miller acknowledged. "What we are doing is going and looking at specific incidents to make specific judgments on those specific incidents to find if they have been remediated... what are the actions that Israel took, if any."
"You have to answer those two questions before you can make those determinations under United States law," he added. "That's what we're doing."
Asked when those assessments will be completed, Miller said, "As soon as possible."
In addition to providing Israel with tens of billions of dollars in armed aid, the Biden administration also shields the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations by vetoing Security Council cease-fire resolutions. Experts argue this makes the United States complicit in what many jurists and scholars say is genocide. Israel is currently on trial for the crime of genocide at the International Court of Justice. Last week, Palestinians, Palestinian Americans, and rights groups asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to revisit a lawsuit accusing senior Biden administration officials of complicity in genocide.
Meanwhile, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan has applied for arrest warrants targeting Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged "crimes of causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, [and] deliberately targeting civilians in conflict."
Khan also wants to arrest Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Deif for alleged "extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape, and sexual assault in detention." Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran in July. Israel also claims to have killed Deif.
Biden and members of his administration have decried Khan's bid to arrest Israeli leaders and members of U.S. Congress from both major parties support legislation to sanction ICC officials over its prosecutor's pursuit of warrants.
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice charged six senior leaders of Hamas—a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization—with terrorism, murder conspiracy, and sanctions evasion.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday that Israel's 333-day assault on Gaza has left more than 145,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing. The Israeli onslaught has displaced nearly all of Gaza's 2.3 million people and pushed much of Gaza into famine.
Instead of pursuing a different policy toward Israel amid its increasing international isolation over the Gaza war, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris—who became 2024 Democratic presidential nominee after Biden bowed out of the race in July—has flatly said she will not block any arms transfers to Israel. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, is expected to be even more supportive of Israel if he wins a second term.
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Biden Taps 'Literal Arms Dealer' Mira Resnick for Top Israel Policy Post
"Genocide Joe's swan song is to institutionally entrench our support for Israel and make it as difficult as possible to disentangle it," lamented one observer.
Aug 23, 2024
Peace advocates on Friday voiced alarm over the Biden administration's selection of a senior official who has worked to speed the shipment of U.S. arms to Israel as the State Department's point person on Israel-Palestine policy.
HuffPostreported that Mira Resnick, the deputy assistant secretary of state for regional security in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, has been tapped to oversee Washington's handling of issues related to Israel and Palestine. In her current role, Resnick's office supervises around $40 billion in annual U.S. arms transfers.
Using a critical nickname for U.S. President Joe Biden, journalist and podcast host Emma Vigelandsaid on social media Friday, "Genocide Joe's swan song is to institutionally entrench our support for Israel and make it as difficult as possible to disentangle it, which the old fool views as romantic and righteous."
Over the past 10-plus months, the Biden administration has approved more than 100 arms sales to Israel worth billions of dollars. Earlier this month, the administration greenlighted a new $20 billion arms package for Israel.
The announcement of the package—which includes dozens of F-15 fighter jets, tens of thousands of 120mm mortar shells, over 32,700 tank shells, and 30 advanced missiles—came just days after Israeli forces used at least one U.S. bomb in an airstrike on a Gaza school where forcibly displaced Palestinians were sheltering, killing more than 100 people including women and children.
As criticism mounted over Israel's assault and siege on Gaza—which has left more than 144,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and has flattened most of the coastal enclave while stoking deadly famine and the spread of preventable diseases including polio—Resnick helped expedite the flow of U.S. arms to the key Middle Eastern ally.
She also worked with the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan wants to arrest for alleged war crimes including "extermination," to allow private citizens to donate equipment to the Israel Defense Forces.
Annelle Sheline, a former State Department official who resigned earlier this year over Biden's support for Israel amid a war for which the key ally is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice, told HuffPost that Resnick's appointment "reflects a doubling down on the administration's determination to continue to provide unconditional material support for Israel's genocidal campaign against civilians in Gaza."
American University of Beirut history professor Zeead Yaghi decried the Biden administration's appointment of "a literal arms dealer."
Last month, the Biden administration ended a two-month pause on the shipment of 500-pound bombs to Israel despite the frequent use of U.S.-supplied weapons by Israeli forces to commit alleged war crimes and genocide in Gaza. Biden has suspended transfers of 500- and 2,000-pound bombs manufactured by aerospace giant Boeing over fears the devastating munitions would be used in airstrikes on Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge.
Israel has dropped at least hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs—which the U.S. military avoids using in civilian areas because they can destroy entire city blocks—on Gaza, including in an October 31 attack on the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp that killed more than 120 civilians.
The U.S. is by far Israel's biggest arms supplier, providing around 70% of Israeli arms imports,
according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
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