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u.s. support for israel
Tlaib Demands Blinken Resign Over Failure to Hold Israel Accountable for Gaza Genocide
"No nation blocking U.S. humanitarian assistance can receive U.S. weapons," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib. "The Biden administration cannot pick and choose when they comply with our own laws."
Nov 15, 2024
Progressive Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan on Thursday urged U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to resign for breaking federal laws against arming human rights violators by lavishing Israel with tens of billions of dollars in American weapons used to harm Palestinians—more than 150,000 of whom have been killed or maimed in Gaza.
Speaking on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., Tlaib—the only Palestinian American member of Congress—argued that "Secretary Blinken has continued to lie to Congress and should resign."
"U.S. law is very clear. No nation blocking U.S. humanitarian assistance can receive U.S. weapons," she stressed. "The Biden administration cannot pick and choose when they comply with our own laws."
The
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and Leahy Laws prohibit military aid to security forces that commit gross human rights violations, although in practice, the U.S. has sent weapons to many countries guilty of grave abuses, including the perpetrators of several genocides.
Tlaib disdainfully referred to the Biden administration's deadline for Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza or face a possible suspension of arms transfers.
"I want to talk about, quote, Biden's 30-day humanitarian deadline," she said. "The Biden administration has continued to ignore reports from its own experts, international human rights organizations, and the United Nations that the Israeli government is blocking humanitarian aid in Gaza."
Although the deadline passed earlier this week without full Israeli compliance with any of the 19 demands made by Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the State Department determined that Israel is not violating U.S. law, sparking global outrage.
"The Israeli government is using starvation as a weapon of war," Tlaib said.
Earlier this year, as Gazan children began dying from malnutrition and lack of medical care, the International Court of Justice in The Hague—which is weighing a South Africa-led genocide case against Israel—ordered Israeli authorities to stop blocking aid from entering Gaza. Critics accuse Israel of flouting this and two other Gaza-related ICJ orders.
Pointing to a photo of Fadi al-Zant, a 6-year-old Gaza boy who nearly starved to death, Tlaib continued: "Look at this picture. It is evident that blocking U.S. humanitarian aid... is happening, and it is a blatant violation... of the Foreign Assistance Act."
"The Israeli government is using starvation as a weapon of war."
"In a letter to the Israeli government on October 13, Secretary Blinken acknowledged that the Israeli government is violating U.S. law by blocking aid and gave them 30 days to comply," she noted. "The letter demanded that 350 trucks be allowed into Gaza per day. And guess what? According to Israel's own data and own government, only 57 trucks were allowed into Gaza per day in October."
"On November 1, top United Nations officials said, 'The entire Palestinian population in northern Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and violence,'" she added. "This week... Secretary Blinken exposed his lie by announcing that there will be no change to any policy, despite admitting that the Israeli government has still failed to comply with all of their demands."
Members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right Cabinet have suggested that Blinken personally endorsed Israel's policy of bombing aid trucks.
Palestinian groups and individuals in Palestine and the U.S. unsuccessfully sued President Joe Biden, Blinken, and Austin for their failure to prevent and complicity in Israel's genocide.
Also on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) condemned the Biden administration's failure to take any punitive action against Israel for its assault on Gaza, which a United Nations panel that same day called "consistent with the characteristics of genocide."
"Despite [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's failure to meet the United States' demands, the Biden administration has taken no action to restrict the flow of offensive weapons," Warren said in a statement. "The failure by the Biden administration to follow U.S. law and to suspend arms shipments is a grave mistake that undermines American credibility worldwide."
"If this administration will not act, Congress must step up to enforce U.S. law and hold the Netanyahu government accountable through a joint resolution of disapproval," Warren asserted, adding that she has endorsed resolutions led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and others aimed at blocking a series of proposed arms sales to Israel. Sanders said Wednesday that he will soon seek a floor vote on the resolutions.
"There is no longer any doubt," Sanders said Wednesday, "that Netanyahu's extremist government is in clear violation of U.S. and international law as it wages a barbaric war against the Palestinian people in Gaza."
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Universities Raze Jewish Students' Gaza Solidarity Sukkahs
"I think it's despicable, cowardly, and highly hypocritical—after all the U.W. administration's efforts to supposedly address antisemitism on campus... just to tear down our sukkah?" said one student.
Oct 22, 2024
Some U.S. universities have torn down solidarity sukkahs that Jewish students opposed to Israel's war on Palestinians have built in recent days to honor the Sukkot holiday and to "protest as the Israeli military continues to invoke the Jewish tradition as fuel for the destruction of Gaza."
Sukkahs are temporary booths erected for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, an eight-day celebration of the fall harvest and the ancient Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt.
To honor the holiday, students from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and other Jewish-led organizations constructed Gaza solidarity sukkahs on campuses including Northwestern University; University of Chicago; Brown University; Columbia University; University of Washington; University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University; Yale University; University of North Carolina; University of California, Los Angeles; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Rutgers University; University of California, San Diego; and other schools.
"For the past year, we have witnessed the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and even administrators at our university distort our thousands of years-old Jewish tradition to justify genocide," University of Washington student Talia Braester said in a statement.
"We will not allow our tradition to be exploited by those who seek death and destruction," Braester added. "Our ancestors, many of whom endured genocide and ethnic cleansing, taught us never to be bystanders in the face of injustice. We call for an arms embargo and divestment from the Israeli military out of a commitment to life itself."
According to JVP:
In alignment with Jewish tradition, Jewish students intended to spend eight days dwelling in the sukkah—a ritual in remembrance of Jewish ancestors forced to live in temporary structures in the desert while fleeing slavery. This year, students could not separate their observance from the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinians are forced to live in temporary shelters due to the Israeli military's mass destruction of homes in Gaza. And this week the world witnessed Israeli forces bomb Al-Aqsa Hospital, burning alive Palestinian patients, including 19-year-old Sha'ban al-Dalou, who was recovering from an operation in his tent with an IV still in his arm. Jewish students across the country are observing Sukkot and hung banners from their sukkahs saying, "Stop Arming Israel" as Israeli forces murder tens of thousands of innocent people in Gaza.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health and United Nations agencies, Israel's 382-day assault and siege of the enclave has left more than 152,000 Palestinians dead, injured, or missing, and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, and sickened. Israel's conduct in the war is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case. Meanwhile, thousands more Palestinians have been killed or wounded in the illegally occupied West Bank. Thousands of Lebanese have been killed or maimed by the Israeli bombardment and invasion of Lebanon, according to officials there.
The U.S. supports Israel's war effort with tens of billions of dollars in
military aid and diplomatic backing including vetoes of multiple United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolutions.
On several of the campuses where sukkahs were built, university administrators destroyed the sacred structures—in some cases, throwing them in dumpsters. Some students said they now face disciplinary action, even though in years past they were allowed to sleep in their sukkahs.
"Many of the sukkahs were adorned with plants and gourds from local farms as a way to honor the harvest," said JVP. "In a callous display, the administrators discarded these as well."
"Many administrators cited draconian policies passed in the wake of the Gaza solidarity encampments that forbid students from camping overnight," the group noted, referring to protests during the last academic year. "The students explained that sleeping in sukkahs is an essential part of this holiday and part of their religious rights, but administrators choose to disregard the students' pleas."
Another University of Washington student, Roza Fernandez, said that "I think it's despicable, cowardly, and highly hypocritical—after all the U.W. administration's efforts to supposedly address antisemitism on campus... just to tear down our sukkah?"
"It shows the truth: Admin does not care about antisemitism and is not afraid to wield it to silence criticism of Zionism and their complicity in genocide," Fernandez added.
JVP media coordinator Liv Kunins-Berkowitz said that "these universities desecrate these students' Jewish practice because their faith is intertwined with their solidarity with the Palestinian people."
"A university has no right to dictate what types of Jewish practice are legitimate," Kunins-Berkowitz added. "Anti-Zionist Judaism is a long-standing and rapidly growing expression of being Jewish."
The U.S. students' campaign of solidarity sukkahs stood in stark contrast with the sukkahs erected by far-right Israeli settlers during this week's "Preparing to Settle Gaza" conference, which was backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin's ruling Likud party and featured speakers including Cabinet ministers and several members of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.
"Each of you will witness how Jews go to Gaza and Arabs will disappear from Gaza," one prominent settler and advocate for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians told the audience at the event.
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Killing of Woman Harvester Underscores 'War-Like' Israeli Assault on West Bank Olive Growers
"The olive season has turned into a season of killing for the Palestinian people, whether at the hands of the Israeli army or armed settlers," said one observer.
Oct 18, 2024
The killing of a 59-year-old woman who eyewitnesses said was shot in the back by a member of the Israel Defense Forces while she was harvesting olives on her land in the West Bank on Thursday highlighted what one United Nations official called a "war-like" assault by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the illegally occupied Palestinian territory.
Hanan Abu Salameh was working with relatives in her family's olive grove in the village of Faqqua, located east of Jenin in the northern West Bank, when IDF soldiers posted on the nearby separation barrier along the Israeli border opened fire on them, Faris Abu Salameh, the slain woman's son, told Middle East Eye.
Abu Salameh—who saw his mother get shot—said his family and other villagers had permission from Israeli occupation authorities to harvest olives on their lands if they stayed at least 100 meters (328 feet) from the wall.
"We were much further than that from the wall," he said. "All of a sudden they started shooting randomly. We started collecting our things to leave and moved away. My father waved his white hat in the air hoping they would stop. They shot her in the back as we were fleeing the shooting."
The IDF said Friday that it has suspended a deputy commander of the battalion in which the soldier who allegedly shot Abu Salameh served.
"An investigation has been opened by the military police investigating the incident," the IDF said in a statement. "The commander of the force at the time of the incident has been suspended from her position until the end of the investigations."
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that it has received reports that settlers have carried out 32 attacks against Palestinians and their property, including farms, this month alone. The agency also said that about 600 olive trees—which take 10 years or more to reach maturity—have been destroyed, stolen, or vandalized by Israeli settler-colonists.
"It is, frankly, very concerning that it's not only attacks on people, but it's attacks on their olive groves as well," OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke said at a Geneva press conference on Friday. "The olive harvest is an economic lifeline for tens of thousands of Palestinian families in the West Bank."
According to the Palestinian Farmers' Union, olives are the number one agricultural product in the West Bank. Between a quarter and one-third of the West Bank's population is estimated to work with olive trees and associated products, including oil and soap. Israeli occupation forces have severely and systematically restricted Palestinians' access to their own land, causing serious economic losses.
"Israeli forces have been using lethal, war-like tactics in the West Bank, raising serious concerns over excessive use of force and deepening people's humanitarian needs," Laerke added.
Israeli attacks on olive farmers began on the very first day of this year's harvest season earlier this month, when dozens of masked settlers wounded at least 11 Palestinians including women and children. Settlers including members of the violent extremist group Hilltop Youth have also stolen land from Palestinians in the West Bank.
The United States and other nations have imposed sanctions on a handful of the most violent Israeli settlers after incidents including multiple deadly pogroms during which IDF troops have protected and sometimes joined the attackers.
However, the U.S. is also Israel's number one international backer, providing the key Mideast ally with tens of billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover including vetoes of multiple U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolutions.
This, even as Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its conduct in a war of annihilation that has left more than 150,000 Palestinians in Gaza dead, maimed, or missing and millions more forcibly displaced, homeless, starved, and sickened.
In the West Bank, more than 750 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more wounded by Israeli soldiers and settlers since last October, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. During that same period, more than 40 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed by Palestinians resisting what David Ben-Gurion, the first Israeli prime minister, acknowledged in the 1930s was the "usurpation" of their land by Jewish colonizers.
"The West Bank is Palestinian land," the California-based advocacy group Institute For Middle East Understanding (IMEU) said on social media Friday. "Israeli soldiers have no legal right to be there, yet they have relentlessly invaded Palestinian towns and cities, killing and displacing those who rightfully live there."
More than 700,000 Israelis live in over 140 settlements in the occupied West Bank. Under international law including the Fourth Geneva Convention, both Israel's 57-year occupation of Palestine and its settlements are illegal. In July, the ICJ
issued an advisory opinion that Israel's occupation is an illegal form of apartheid that must end immediately.
"The Biden administration has a duty under U.S. and international law to stop arming Israel as it continues its violence across Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon," IMEU added. "Every weapon the U.S. provides enables Israel to kill more civilians and prolong this devastation."
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Israel Reportedly Massacres Family of Virginia Man in Gaza, Including US Permanent Resident
"This is a documented Israeli war crime of the execution of a U.S. resident and her extended family in Gaza," said one campaigner, urging the Biden administration to "stop supplying Israel with American weapons."
Oct 15, 2024
The Muslim advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations on Tuesday led condemnation of Israeli airstrikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza that killed at least 14 Palestinians—including the mother of an American citizen who was a permanent U.S. resident—and demanded that the Biden administration stop supplying Israel with arms.
In a statement Tuesday, CAIR "called on the Biden administration, the U.S. State Department, and elected officials in Virginia to demand that the Israeli government cease its attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza after the mother of an American citizen, a U.S. resident, and other family members were reportedly executed in a repeat Israeli attack on their family residence, despite the family's pleas to Israeli authorities to stop the bombing and allow the evacuation of surviving family members."
This, after "an American citizen and Virginia man of Palestinian descent informed CAIR that his family home in Gaza was bombed in an Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp."
"There were reportedly 15 people in the house, seven of them children, including the man's mother, a lawful permanent resident of the United States," said CAIR, which did not identify any of the individuals described.
CAIR continued:
After the initial Israeli military strike on the family residence, the U.S. resident mother and an unknown number of relatives were reportedly injured but alive, trapped under the rubble. In an effort to rescue the survivors, the family contacted Israeli authorities, providing them with the residential address and GPS coordinates of their home to arrange for the safe passage of an ambulance. However, the Israeli military apparently used that information to bomb the house a second time and then targeted the ambulance as it attempted to rescue the survivors, killing the doctor and several children. Only a 7-year-old boy survived the incident.
The attacks came amid intensified Israeli bombardment of Jabalia and other parts of Gaza that killed 50 Palestinians on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Israel—which receives tens of billions of dollars in U.S. military aid and diplomatic support including vetoes of multiple United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolutions—is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health and international agencies, Israel's 375-day assault on Gaza has killed or wounded more than 150,000 Palestinians, including at least 10,000 people who are missing and believed to be dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out buildings. Millions more Palestinians have been forced from their homes—often several times—starved, and sickened.
"This is a documented Israeli war crime of the execution of a U.S. resident and her extended family in Gaza," CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad said in a statement. "The only option the Biden administration has is to stop supplying Israel with American weapons, funded by our nation's taxpayers, which are being used to kill our citizens, legal permanent residents, and their families."
"The Biden administration has shown little concern for the mass killing of Palestinians, but perhaps it can be moved to recover the body of a U.S. resident who is also the mother of an American citizen," Awad added. "There must be an immediate cease-fire to end Israel's genocide."
While President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris—the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee—have repeatedly affirmed their unwavering support for Israel, multiple media outlets reported Tuesday that the Biden administration recently threatened to cut off U.S. arms shipments if the Israeli government does not take "urgent and sustained actions" to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within 30 days.
"No need to wait 30 days," CAIR said in a separate statement earlier Tuesday.
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Most Americans Oppose Sending US Troops to Defend Israel: Poll
The poll comes as Israel braces for retaliatory attacks from Iran and its allies following an assassination campaign last week.
Aug 07, 2024
A majority of Americans oppose sending U.S. troops to defend Israel if it's attacked by a neighboring country, according to a poll released Tuesday.
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA) poll found that 55% of Americans oppose such military support of Israel while just 41% favor it, marking a shift from previous iterations of the poll over the last decade in which support for the U.S. defense of Israel was just above 50%.
The poll comes as Israel braces for retaliatory attacks following the assassinations last week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut. The U.S. has moved additional forces into the region to support Israel as diplomats work overtime to try to deescalate tensions and prevent an all-out war in the Middle East. The poll was conducted June 21 to July 1 and doesn't account for these developments.
The reasons for declining U.S. support for defending Israel aren't explored in the poll, but CCGA author Dina Smeltz suggested that "the unrelenting Israeli attacks against Gaza have likely dampened American willingness to defend Israel," and critics of Israel's assault on Gaza drew similar conclusions.
"Nothing seems to undermine Americans' support for Israel more than Israel's own policies," Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote on social media in response to the poll.
CCGA's findings fit with other polling this year that shows decreasing American support for Israel, which has laid siege to the Gaza Strip for the last 10 months, killing nearly 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and destroying a large proportion of the enclave's buildings. The siege began after Hamas and affiliated militant groups massacred more than 1,100 Israelis on October 7.
A Gallup poll in March showed that most Americans disapprove of Israel's military action in Gaza, and another poll that month by the Center for Economic and Policy Research showed that most Americans wanted to stop U.S. weapons shipments to Israel until the country ended its assault on Gaza.
That people in the U.S.—Israel's strongest diplomatic ally and military backer—have decreased their support for Israel is indicative of a global trend. A poll conducted across 43 countries showed a tremendous drop in support for Israel over the first three months of the war, for which Israel has faced widespread international condemnation.
Both the United Nations General Assembly and U.N. Security Council have adopted resolutions demanding a cease-fire. The International Court of Justice, the U.N.'s top court, has issued a series of rulings against Israel this year and the International Criminal Court has sought arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders.
The international criticism has not deterred Israel from further aggression. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set back cease-fire negotiations with Hamas last week with his military's assassination campaign, and he now faces the prospect of an all-out war on multiple fronts, with both Hezbollah and Iran vowing to retaliate.
Hezbollah, a militant group and political party in Lebanon, has ties to Iran and is considered to be significantly better-armed than Hamas, raising the possibility of a war of devastating magnitude. Israel and Hezbollah have traded thousands of airstrikes since October, leaving more than 500 dead, mostly on the Lebanese side, but until now have avoided a major escalation.
Western diplomats have even greater fear of a direct war between Israel and Iran. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is leading what The Washington Post called a "diplomatic sprint" around the Middle East to try to indirectly pressure Iran to use restraint in its response to the assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran. The State Department has refused to say that Iran has a right to defend itself.
The U.S. has placed squadron of F-22 jets and naval destroyers near Israel in preparation for an Iranian attack. U.S. and Israeli leaders have long spoken of the two countries' "ironclad" bond, but no formal military defense treaty exists that requires the U.S. to defend Israel in the event of an attack.
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'Every Single Senator Should Be Supporting' Sanders Bid to Block Massive New Arms Sale to Israel
Sen. Bernie Sanders said he would introduce a joint resolution to block the proposed sale of $18 billion worth of warplanes and other weaponry to Israel.
Jul 12, 2024
As the Biden administration pushes Congress to approve an additional $18 billion arms sale to Israel even as it wages what much of the international community considers a genocidal war against the people of Gaza, Palestine defenders on Friday urged U.S. senators to support an effort by Sen. Bernie Sanders to block weapons transfers to the key Middle Eastern ally.
The Biden administration is urging congressional lawmakers to sign off on the sale of a package involving as many as 50 McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighters, as well as munitions, training, and other support, to Israel. The sale cleared a key hurdle last month when two holdouts—Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking Democratic member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the top Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrat—agreed to support the transfer.
If given final approval, the sale would be one of the largest to Israel since it began its nine-month assault on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7 attacks. More than 137,500 Palestinians have been killed, maimed, or left missing by Israel's onslaught, which is the subject of both an International Court of Justice genocide case and International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan's bid to arrest Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas Chief Yahya Sinwar.
The Biden administration has approved billions of dollars in U.S. military aid and more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October. This, atop the nearly $4 billion Israel already got from Washington annually.
"While much of the media is focused on the drama of the U.S. presidential election, we must not lose sight of what is happening in Gaza, where an unprecedented humanitarian crisis continues to get even worse," Sanders said Friday.
"Nine months into this war, more than 38,000 people have been killed and 88,000 injured—60% of whom are women, children, or elderly. The full toll is likely higher, with thousands more buried beneath the rubble," he continued. "Nine in 10 Gazans—1.9 million people—have been driven from their homes."
"Many people have been displaced four or five times, and most do not have homes to return to, with more than 60% of residential buildings damaged or destroyed," he added.
"Israel continues to restrict the entry of [United Nations] humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza, prevent the entry of key humanitarian items, and obstruct aid workers' access to many areas," the senator noted. "These restrictions have prevented aid organizations from setting up a sustained, effective response."
Sanders stressed:
Yet, in the midst of this horror and violations of international law, the United States continues to send billions of dollars and thousands of bombs and other weapons to support this war. We, as Americans, are complicit.
We must end our support for Netanyahu's war. Not another nickel to make this horrific situation even worse. I intend to do everything I can to block further arms transfers to Israel, including through joint resolutions of disapproval of any arms sales. The United States must not help a right-wing extremist and war criminal continue this atrocity.
Palestine defenders backed Sanders' effort.
"Every single senator should be supporting Sen. Sanders upcoming joint resolution of disapproval against an $18 billion weapons giveaway to Israel, which would further enmesh and implicate the U.S. in Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," Institute for Middle East Understanding policy director Josh Ruebner said on social media.
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As US Aid Shipments Begin, Gaza Pier Denounced as 'PR Move'
"It's completely absurd," said one humanitarian worker. "The solution to the problem here is obvious."
May 17, 2024
As humanitarian shipments began trickling into Gaza via a U.S.-built temporary floating pier, Palestinians and aid workers on Friday renewed criticism of what they called an expensive and largely ineffectual publicity stunt that is no substitute for a cease-fire and opening of more land crossings into the besieged coastal enclave.
U.S. Army Central Command said that "trucks carrying humanitarian assistance began moving ashore" at around 9:00 am local time Friday as part of "an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor."
The $320 million Trident Pier—which consists of a floating offshore barge and 1,800-foot causeway to the shore—is expected to eventually accommodate up to 150 trucks per day. According to United Nations agencies, an average of 200 trucks entered Gaza each day last month, far fewer than the prewar daily mean of more than 500 truckloads that U.S. and U.N. officials say are required to meet the needs of a population facing critical shortages of food, water, medicine, and other lifesaving supplies.
"We don't want ships. We want the border crossing to open for people to come and go. We want safety."
However, as faminegrips northern Gaza—with malnutrition and dehydration killing dozens of people, mostly children—and at least hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians starve, Israel has been accused of blocking aid from those who desperately need it and using starvation as a weapon of war.
"We don't want ships. We want the border crossing to open for people to come and go. We want safety. We want official borders," Hassan Abu Al-Kass, a forcibly displaced Palestinian man, told The New York Times on Thursday.
Al-Kass compared the pier to the humanitarian aid airdropped by U.S. and other troops over Gaza, whose officials
say that more than 20 people have been killed by the parachuting parcels, either by crushing or drowning while trying to reach offshore drops.
"Those planes, as well, that they bring here with the parachutes, and they throw food at us like dogs, like beggars, that does not work," he said. "It falls on houses. It falls on people. It brings us problems."
One unnamed humanitarian aid worker
told U.S. investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill: "It's completely absurd. The solution to the problem here is obvious and we need to end the occupation... Once the siege is lifted, humanitarian aid can roll in. A pier is a PR move."
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said Thursday that "to stave off the horrors of famine, we must use the fastest and most obvious route to reach the people of Gaza—and for that, we need access by land now."
Washington Post columnist Ishaan Tharoor noted on social media Thursday that "no major humanitarian organization has asked for this pier, and most see it as a costly distraction that will do little to make a dent in meeting Gaza's overwhelming humanitarian needs."
"For that," he added, "you need a cease-fire and open border crossings and less military obstruction."
According to a report published last month, officials at the United States Agency for International Development concluded in a confidential memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel is violating a White House directive by blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. Critics pointed to the leaked memo as more evidence that the Biden administration is breaking the law by supporting Israel's assault on Gaza—which Palestinian and international officials say has killed, wounded, or left missing more than 125,000 people—with arms and diplomatic cover.
Parties to the South African-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, as well as human rights groups, accuse Israel of flouting the ICJ's January 26 preliminary ruling ordering the Israeli government to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and ensure immediate delivery of humanitarian aid. Israel rejects charges of genocide and blocking aid.
Hundreds of U.N. and other aid workers—overwhelmingly Palestinians—have also been killed or wounded by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7. Israeli troops have been accused of deliberately attacking both humanitarian workers and Palestinians trying to receive aid, including in the February 29 "Flour Massacre," in which nearly 900 starving Gazans were killed or wounded while waiting for food distribution south of Gaza City.
Critics have slammed U.S. President Joe Biden for offering token aid to Gazans with one hand while lavishing Israel with billions of dollars of weaponry used to kill Palestinians with the other.
Earlier this month, Biden said he would stop sending bombs, artillery shells, and other arms to Israel in the event of a major invasion of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians forcibly displaced from other parts of the embattled Gaza Strip are sheltering alongside around 280,000 local residents.
However, as Israeli air and ground attacks pound the southern city, killing civilians including 22 members of one family in a single strike, Biden—who previously implored Israel to stop its "indiscriminate bombing" of Palestinian noncombatants—informed Congress this week that his administration will soon send another $1 billion in arms and ammunition, including tank and mortar rounds, to the Israel Defense Forces.
This, despite the Biden administration last week
acknowledging "reasonable" evidence that Israel is using U.S.-supplied weapons in the commission of war crimes in Gaza, with the caveat that "we are not able to reach definitive conclusions" on the matter.
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Netanyahu Says Israel 'Will Stand Alone' as Biden Threatens to Withhold Arms
"If we have to, we will fight with our nails," the Israeli prime minister said in response to the American leader's warning against a major Rafah invasion.
May 09, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday responded to U.S. President Joe Biden's threat to withhold shipments of arms used by the Israel Defense Forces to kill thousands of Palestinian civilians by declaring that his far-right government would continue its assault on Gaza with or without American help.
"If we are forced to stand alone, we will stand alone," Netanyahu said in a video ahead of next week's anniversary of Israel's establishment in 1948, largely via the ethnic cleansing of Palestine's Arabs. "I have already said that if we have to, we will fight with our nails."
Echoing Netanyahu, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the IDF already has the "necessary weapons" to wage war, "including in Rafah," where over 1 million people forcibly displaced from other parts of Gaza are sheltering alongside around 280,000 local residents, all of them bracing for a full-scale Israeli invasion.
The prime minister's remarks came a day after Biden threatened to withhold bombs and artillery shells from Israel if it launches a major invasion of Rafah—even as critics noted that Israeli forces have already attacked and entered the city. Some accused Biden of walking back a previous "red line" warning against any assault on Rafah.
Common Dreams reported Tuesday that Biden is delaying shipments of two types of bombs to Israel in order to send a message that the president's tolerance for what he called Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gazan civilians is waning.
However, observers noted that Biden recently signed off on $14.3 billion in emergency armed assistance for Israel atop the nearly $4 billion the key ally already receives from Washington each year. The Biden administration has quietly approved more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October 7, while pushing for billions of dollars worth of additional deals, including advanced fighter jets.
Biden has also repeatedly bypassed Congress to fast-track weapons transfers to Israel as it wages what the International Court of Justice in January called a "plausibly" genocidal war that's killed, injured, or left missing more than 124,000 Palestinians—mostly women and children—since October 7.
The U.S. administration also provides diplomatic cover for Israel's policies and practices in the form of United Nations Security Council vetoes.
Despite all this support—which comes as most election-year voters supporting Biden's Democratic Party believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza—Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Thursday tweeted, "Hamas ❤️ Biden."
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Biden 'Moving the Goal Post' With Threat to Withhold Bombs From Israel
"Now Israel has a green light to destroy Rafah in slow motion," said one critic.
May 08, 2024
While some Palestine defenders on Wednesday welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden's threat to withhold bombs and artillery shells from Israel if it launches a major invasion of Rafah, critics noted that an invasion is already underway and accused the American leader of walking back a previous "red line" warning against an Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city.
Biden said for the first time that he'll stop sending bombs, artillery shells, and other arms to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians forcibly displaced from other parts of the embattled Gaza Strip are sheltering alongside around 280,000 local residents.
Referring to Israel's use of U.S.-supplied 2,000-pound bombs—which can destroy an entire city block and have been used in some of the war's worst atrocities—Biden told CNN's Erin Burnett that "civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers."
Even the U.S. military—which has killed more foreign civilians than any other armed force on the planet since the end of World War II—won't use 2,000-pound bombs in urban areas. But Israel does, including when it launched a strike to assassinate a single Hamas commander by dropping the munitions on the Jabalia refugee camp last October, killing more than 120 civilians.
"If they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities," Biden said Wednesday.
Israeli forces have already gone into Rafah, and it was reported Tuesday that Biden was taking the unusual step of delaying shipments of two types of Boeing-made bombs to Israel to send a message to the country's far-right government. It was, however, a mixed message, as the president also earlier in the day reaffirmed his support for Israel's war on Gaza. In January, the International Criminal Court ruled that a genocide case against Israel by South Africa was plausibly brought and ordered Israel to "take all measures within its power" to uphold its obligations under Article II of the Genocide Convention.
Critics noted the shifting and subjective language used by Biden—who previously said that any Israeli invasion of Rafah would constitute a "red line" resulting in unspecified consequences.
"He said invading Rafah was a red line. Israel invaded Rafah anyway, bombing buildings, burning and crushing children to death," political analyst Omar Baddar said on social media. "Biden is now moving the goal post by adding a completely subjective descriptor: 'Major.' Now Israel has a green light to destroy Rafah in slow motion."
During the course of the seven-month Israeli assault on Gaza—which has killed, maimed, or left missing more than 124,000 Palestinians—Biden has said Israel has killed "too many civilians" with its "indiscriminate bombing," even as he's pushed for more and more military aid for the key ally.
Wednesday's interview came on the heels of Biden's approval of a $14.3 billion emergency military aid package to Israel, multiple moves to sidestep Congress to fast-track armed assistance, nearly $4 billion in previously authorized annual military aid, and diplomatic cover in the form of several United Nations Security Council vetoes.
Reporting that the Biden administration will delay a highly anticipated report on whether Israel is using U.S. military aid in compliance with international law also drew backlash Tuesday from human rights advocates.
Referring to Israel's U.S.-funded anti-missile system, Biden continued his supportive rhetoric during Wednesday's CNN interview, telling Burnett that "we're going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks."
But the president added that Israel's use of devastating weaponry against civilians is "just wrong," and that "we're not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells."
Some peace groups welcomed Biden's threat to withhold bombs and artillery shells from Israel, even while urging him to do more to stop his ally's genocidal onslaught.
"Biden's statement is as necessary as it is over overdue," Jewish Voice for Peace executive director Stefanie Fox said in a statement. "The U.S. already bears responsibility for months of catastrophic devastation: The nearly 40,000 Palestinians that the Israeli military has killed, the two million Palestinians being intentionally brought to the brink of famine, the decimation of all universities and almost every hospital in Gaza."
"Today's statement shows that Biden can no longer ignore the will of the majority of Americans who want a permanent cease-fire, release of all hostages, and an end to U.S. complicity in Israeli war crimes," Fox added.
Correction: This article has been updated to clarify the International Justice Court's findings on the genocide case brought against Israel.
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Rights Groups Urge Biden to Make Delayed Report on Israel's Use of US Arms Public
The report—due Wednesday under the terms of a White House directive—has been indefinitely postponed, according to congressional aides.
May 07, 2024
Before Tuesday's reporting that the Biden administration will delay a highly anticipated report on whether Israel is using U.S. military aid in compliance with international law, a coalition of advocacy groups circulated a letter urging the White House to share the document with the public once it's published.
In February, President Joe Biden issued National Security Memorandum (NSM)-20, which requires Secretary of State Antony Blinken "to obtain certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments" receiving U.S. arms "that the recipient country will use any such defense articles in accordance with international humanitarian law" and then provide Congress with periodic reports "to enable meaningful oversight."
The first report is due by Wednesday. However, four congressional aides
told Politico Tuesday that publication would be postponed indefinitely.
"It is not clear if your administration intends to... make this report available to the public," coalition members Amnesty International USA, Defending Rights & Dissent, Freedom of the Press Foundation, National Press Photographers Association, Radio Television Digital News Association, and Reporters Without Borders said in a letter to Biden drafted ahead of Politico's reporting.
"We strongly urge you to make the report available to the public and the press to the greatest extent possible," the groups added.
Access to the document, the coalition argued, "will allow the press to more fully and accurately report on how elected leaders are making decisions about military aid to foreign countries" and "will help Americans make informed judgments about our leaders' decisions on foreign military aid."
"We strongly urge you to make the report available to the public and the press to the greatest extent possible."
The letter comes as Israel uses U.S.-supplied arms and ammunition to wage what hundreds of international legal experts and others say is a genocidal war on Gaza. These include 155-millimeter artillery shells and 2,000-pound guided "bunker-buster" bombs, which Israel says are necessary to target Hamas' underground tunnels.
Aided by artificial intelligence-based target selection systems, Israel Defense Forces commanders are ordering strikes they know will cause large numbers of civilian casualties. In a bid to assassinate a single Hamas commander, the IDF dropped at least two 2,000-pound bombs on the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp on October 31, killing more than 120 civilians.
Even the U.S. military—which since 2001 has killed hundreds of thousands of people during the open-ended so-called War on Terror—avoids using 2,000-pound bombs in densely populated areas due to the tremendous damage they cause.
One prominent U.S. military historian called Israel's Gaza onslaught "one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history," comparing it to the Allied firebombing of Dresden during World War II, which also killed tens of thousands of civilians.
The letter also comes as the Biden administration reportedly believes that Israel's nascent ground invasion of Rafah does not cross the president's "red line" warning that any "major operation" in the southern city—where more than 1 million Palestinians forcibly displaced from other parts of Gaza are sheltering alongside around 280,000 local residents—would damage U.S.-Israeli relations.
The International Court of Justicefound in January that Israel is "plausibly" perpetrating genocide in Gaza, where Israeli bombs, bullets, and blockades have left more than 123,000 Palestinians—most of them women and children—dead, injured, or missing since October 7, and hundreds of thousands more suffering full-blown famine.
While the Biden administration has accepted the Israeli government's claims that it is not breaking international law when using American weapons, a number of House Democrats have challenged Israel's assurance, citing "mounting credible and deeply troubling reports and allegations" of human rights crimes committed by IDF troops in Gaza, and by soldiers and settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Officials at the United States Agency for International Development also concluded in a confidential April memo to Blinken that Israel is violating NSM-20 by blocking humanitarian aid from entering the besieged Gaza Strip as children there starve to death.
Furthermore, a leaked State Department memo revealed last month that officials at four of the agency's bureaus concluded that Israel's assurances of legal arms use are "neither credible nor reliable."
In addition to NSM-20, federal legislation including the Arms Control Export Act and Leahy Laws also proscribe U.S. arms transfers to human rights violators—although there are many examples of these statutes being ignored for the benefit of key allies including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other nations.
"The public has a profound interest in understanding how the U.S. ensures that its military aid doesn't go to human rights abusers," Caitlin Vogus, deputy advocacy director at Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement Tuesday.
"If the Biden administration can stand behind its decisions about defense assistance, it should have no reason to withhold the report that members of Congress will see from the press and the public," Vogus added.
While Biden has criticized Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza and is reportedly holding up two shipments of precision-guided bombs to send a message to Israeli leaders, the president continues to affirm his steadfast support for Israel and has recently approved the transfer of more warplanes, 2,000-pound bombs, and other arms to its key Middle Eastern ally. The administration is also pushing Congress to approve the sale of $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel.
Earlier this year, a group of mostly Democratic members of Congress asked Blinken to explain what they called "highly unusual" moves by the Biden administration to bypass lawmakers in order to fast-track emergency military aid to Israel. Biden—who recently signed off on $14.3 billion in new armed aid to Israel atop the $4 billion it already gets from Washington each year—has also come under fire for approving more than 100 weapons sales to Israel since October.
Human rights defenders slammed Biden's reported decision to postpone publication of the report due on Wednesday.
"It's obvious why Biden is burying the NSM-20 report on Israel: He won't hold Israel accountable," Georgetown University adjunct professor Josh Reubner asserted on social media. "There's no way to conclude that Israel hasn't violated assurances it won't use U.S. weapons to break international law or block aid. Of course it's doing both."
Palestinian American author and political analyst Yousef Munayyer asked: "Hey, Joe Biden, what are you hidin'?"
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