Six Months of Israeli Attacks on Gaza: Policy Recommendations
IMEU Policy Project Memo #1
Topline
US policymakers who want to center human rights in US foreign policy and mitigate harm to civilians should act to end Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and to establish peace and safety for all by:
Enforcing US laws on weapons transfers to Israel
Advocating for a permanent ceasefire
Ensuring compliance with the ICJ’s provisional measures
Holding accountable all violators of human rights
Enabling Palestinians to achieve justice, freedom, and equality
Background
In the last six months, the Israeli military has killed a staggering 32,000+ Palestinians, after 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians were also killed on October 7. The death toll Israel has inflicted is unprecedented in its more than 75-year history of oppression toward the indigenous Palestinian people, with children (13,800) and women (8,850) accounting for more than 70 percent of fatalities, according to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health. To put these alarming casualty figures in perspective, historians estimate that Israel killed between 12,000 and 15,000 Palestinians during the Nakba in 1948, and between 17,000 and 19,000 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in its attack on Lebanon in 1982.
Israel also has damaged or destroyed an estimated 70 percent of all housing in the Gaza Strip, according to the UN, forcibly displacing at least 1.5 million Palestinians; half of all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are facing imminent starvation as a result of Israel’s blockading of food, according to the International Food Security Phase Classification; Israel has repeatedly attacked 30 of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, rendering most of them inoperable and leading to a nearly complete collapse of the healthcare system.
As a result of these and other facts, including dehumanizing statements about Palestinian civilians made by Israeli cabinet members and soldiers, the International Court of Justice ruled in January that it is plausible that Israel is committing acts of genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Court also ordered provisional measures to prevent Israel’s commission of genocidal acts.
As Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip reach the half-year mark, IMEU Policy Project offers the five following recommendations to the Biden administration, Members of Congress, and candidates for elected office.
Policy Recommendation #1: End US Weapons Transfers to Israel
Israel is in flagrant violation of multiple US laws and Biden administration policies governing the transfer and usage of US weapons to foreign countries. Most clearly, the US is failing to enforce the Foreign Assistance Act, which states that no US weapons can be given to a country which engages in a “consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights,” or which “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.”
The Biden administration is also blatantly disregarding its Conventional Arms Transfer policy, which prohibits the delivery of weapons to a country when it is “more likely than not” that the weapons will be used to commit “genocide; crimes against humanity; grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, including attacks intentionally directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such; or other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law, including serious acts of gender‑based violence or serious acts of violence against children.”
In addition, Israel’s NSM-20 assurances that it is complying with international humanitarian law and not blocking humanitarian aid are not credible. The Biden administration should immediately report to Congress that Israel is not fulfilling the requirements of this national security memorandum and cut off weapons as is required.
Rather than enforce US law and abide by its own policies, the Biden administration has repeatedly bypassed Congressional oversight to expedite the transfer of weapons to Israel, making the US complicit in Israel’s actions.
No country is above the law and all countries should be held to the same standard. The United States must end weapons transfers to Israel now.
Policy Recommendation #2: Demand a Permanent Ceasefire Now
The Biden administration vetoed UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire on three previous occasions before abstaining on S/RES/2728, which demanded an immediate ceasefire to be respected by all parties in Gaza for the month of Ramadan, and a lasting sustainable ceasefire to follow.
Contrary to Biden administration pronouncements, Security Council resolutions are binding on all member states of the UN. Israel’s failure to abide by this resolution should open the door to immediate action under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to hold Israel accountable for its violation of S/RES/2728, including a finding under Article 39 that Israel’s continued military operations in Gaza constitute a “threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression”. The Security Council must then call on member states to adopt measures under Article 41 of the UN Charter to compel Israel’s compliance with S/RES/2728.
By a wide margin of 67-22 percent, a Data for Progress report found that a vast majority of all likely voters support a permanent ceasefire. 77 percent of Democratic voters support a ceasefire with only 13 percent opposed. Members of Congress are beginning to catch up to public opinion, with nearly 100 Democrats having called for a ceasefire.
A permanent ceasefire is the only way to end the violence and ensure the release of all people wrongly detained.
Policy Recommendation #3: Enforce the ICJ Provisional Measures
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued two rounds of provisional measures to compel Israel to stop the commission of genocidal acts against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. As a ratifying country of the Genocide Convention, the US has a legal and moral obligation to ensure Israel’s compliance with these provisional measures, which inter alia call on Israel to immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza and ensure access to adequate food and water; humanitarian assistance, including access to adequate fuel, shelter, clothes, hygiene and sanitation; and medical supplies and assistance.
The ICJ felt compelled to issue further provisional measures on March 28 to ensure the “unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance, including food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene and sanitation requirements, as well as medical supplies and medical care to Palestinians throughout Gaza, including by increasing the capacity and number of land crossing points and maintaining them open for as long as necessary.”
The most obvious indication of Israel’s failure to abide by this provisional measure is the Biden administration’s decision to airdrop food–a dangerous and completely insufficient mechanism to deliver humanitarian aid, which has killed Palestinians through parachute failures and drownings–and build a temporary pier off of Gaza’s Mediterranean coast. Neither of these gambits would be necessary if Israel were complying with ICJ provisional measures instead of obstructing humanitarian aid through land crossings.
Failure to ensure Israel’s compliance with the ICJ’s provisional measures further makes the US complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocidal acts against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Policy Recommendation #4: Ensure Accountability for All Human Rights Violators
Human rights are universal and any person responsible for the commission of human rights abuses, regardless of whether the alleged perpetrator or victim is Israeli or Palestinian, should be held accountable.
The best way to ensure that all human rights violators are held accountable and that victims receive a modicum of justice is for criminal complaints to be filed in the International Criminal Court (ICC).
It is important to note that the United States has actively opposed and sought to obstruct the functioning of all previous accountability efforts after prior Israeli attacks against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, even when investigative bodies have documented war crimes and potential crimes against humanity committed both by Israel and Hamas, and called for all violators to be held accountable.
The United States can only credibly advocate for accountability for human rights violations when all parties are held accountable for their actions rather than express selective outrage.
Policy Recommendation #5: Ensure Palestinian Rights, Freedom in “Day After” Planning
Eventually there will be a ceasefire and Israel’s attacks against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip will end. The US has done contingency planning for “day after” scenarios for governance in the Gaza Strip. However, this post-attack planning has been predictable and lacking in the vision and leadership required to meet this moment.
Simply put, there can be no return to the pre-October 7 status quo of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip living under a 17-year-long Israeli blockade, which is a form of collective punishment and a war crime under international law. Moreover, Palestinians who have lived under brutal Israeli military rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since 1967 must finally be enabled to exercise their right to freedom.
Any “day after” planning must, at a minimum, include self-determination for the Palestinian people, an end to Israel’s illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, and an end to Israeli military rule over the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
In addition, policymakers must address the fact that approximately 75 percent of Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip today are refugees. Like all Palestinian refugees, Israel has denied them their right of return to the homes from which it expelled them in 1948. The right of return is a universal right under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a specific right of Palestinian refugees under UN General Assembly Resolution 194. The injustice of Israel denying Palestinian refugees their rights must end and Palestinian refugees who desire to return home must be allowed to do so.
Only on this basis of justice, freedom, and self-determination can policymakers enable a framework for all people–Palestinian and Israeli alike–to live lives of peace, safety, equality, and dignity.
Photo credit: Marius Arnesen/Flickr. Creative Commons license.