Republicans Attempt To Force Even More Weapons To Israel | Palestine Policy Roundup 5.17.24
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Sen. Chris Van Hollen on the NSM-20 report: “Today’s report also indicates a continuation of a disturbing pattern where the expertise and analyses of those working most closely on these issues at the State Department and at USAID have been swept aside to facilitate a predetermined policy outcome based on political convenience…this report does not meet the requirements of NSM-20. It also risks establishing a dangerously low bar for the permissible use of U.S. weapons and the acceptable standard for the delivery of humanitarian assistance.”
Sen. Peter Welch on the NSM-20 report: “The State Department’s assessment of the catastrophe that has befallen Gaza and its people…is deeply troubling. If such use of American weapons and ammunition is seen to be largely within the bounds of IHL, then what do we say when the armed forces of other countries, who are not U.S. allies, inflict disproportionate casualties on civilians[?]…If the flow of humanitarian aid to 2 million desperate people is impeded every step of the way while Israel’s Prime Minister flatly denies it, why would we accept his government’s assurances?”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib: “The Nakba never ended. Today we are witnessing the Israeli apartheid government carry out genocide in Gaza…As we mark the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, we honor all the lives lost since the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians began, and the Palestinians who were forced from their homes and violently displaced from their land.”
Rep. Cori Bush: “This week, my team & I met with the family of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist, killed by the IDF #OTD two years ago. We will continue to demand accountability for her death and for all journalists who’ve been killed around the world. #JusticeForShireen”
DC DEVELOPMENTS
BIDEN ADMIN REPORT ON ISRAEL’S NSM-20 ASSURANCES FALLS SHORT
The Biden administration released its overdue report required by National Security Memorandum 20, which found that it was “reasonable to assess” that Israeli forces used US-supplied weapons in violation of international humanitarian law but concluded that Israeli assurances regarding humanitarian aid and compliance with international and US law are credible and reliable. This conclusion flies in the face of multiple reports detailing violations of international law, including from Human Rights Watch and Oxfam International, Amnesty International, and the Independent Task Force on the Application of National Security Memorandum-20 to Israel. The Biden administration has once again failed to hold Israel accountable despite overwhelming evidence that Israel is violating international humanitarian law and restricting the delivery of aid to Gaza. The report makes a mockery of the supposed commitment of the US to center human rights in foreign policy. Congress must reject this report and continue to pressure the Biden administration to halt all weapons to Israel.
The report also ignores Israel’s ongoing obstruction of humanitarian aid at the Rafah and Kerem Shalom gates and the explosion of the humanitarian crisis as a result of these closures. These crossings have been critical for the more than one million people who have been displaced in Gaza; by closing the crossings and heavily restricting the amount of aid that can come through, Israel is threatening more Palestinians with starvation and lack of medical care as northern Gaza experiences a full blown famine.
❗ MUST READ: John Ramming Chappell, Advocacy & Legal Fellow at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, published a detailed analysis of the report and its takeaways.
👀 CHECK THIS OUT: The IMEU Policy Project published a thread on X detailing dozens of violations by Israel of international humanitarian law based on the American Friends Service Committee’s Israeli Violations [of NSM-20] Tracker.
HOUSE VOTES ON BILL TO FORCE ARMS SALES TO ISRAEL
Yesterday the House voted 224-187–with 16 Democrats crossing party lines–on H.R. 8369 to condemn the president for pausing the delivery of some weapons to Israel. President Biden’s decision to temporarily pause the delivery of some weapons to Israel is a long-overdue and wholly insufficient step to respond to the magnitude of Israel’s violations of US law and Biden administration policies in its killing of more than 35,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
As Democratic leadership noted, the pause on these weapons constitutes less than 1% of the value of weapons the president has delivered to fuel Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza. The president has already severely undercut this pause by moving forward with a tiered review process for a $1.26 billion weapons package to Israel, including $700 million in tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, which would deepen US complicity in Israel’s actions.
Through H.R.8369, the GOP is now trying to take away the president’s prerogatives and authorities under statutory law to withhold the delivery of weapons to Israel, making it impossible for the Biden administration to implement global standards of human rights when it comes to weapons transfers to Israel.
Additionally, the bill would also prohibit salary payments to any employee of the Departments of Defense and State who follow US law and Biden administration weapons transfer policies when assessing the legality of weapons deliveries to Israel. Janet Abou-Elias and Lillian Mauldin highlight in a recent op-ed published in The Hill how punitive measures against federal officials doing their jobs amounts to a McCarthyist assault on the rule of law.
📖 LEARN MORE: Read the IMEU Policy Project’s policy memo on the bill and how it encourages more violations of US and international law.
REP. TLAIB INTRODUCES RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING 76 YEARS OF THE NAKBA
Rep. Rashida Tlaib and five of her colleagues introduced a resolution to recognize 76 years of the Nakba, to promote education and understanding of this event, and to reinstate support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
❓ASK: IMEU Policy Project strongly supports this resolution and urges Members of Congress to cosponsor it.
Palestinians marked the 76th commemoration of the beginning of the Nakba on May 15th. In 1948, armed militias and the Israeli military massacred thousands of Palestinians, forcing more than 75% of Palestinians to flee their homes to establish Israel on top of stolen Palestinian land. The Nakba, which is Arabic for “catastrophe”, has everything to do with Israel’s genocide in Gaza today. Abeer Barakat, who has been displaced 11 times since the start of the Israeli assault on Gaza, wrote about the strong parallels between her experiences in Gaza and her grandmother’s experiences in 1948. In the article, Barakat notes a key difference between her experience and her grandmother’s experience: today, the genocide and displacement is carried out by an army with funding and support from the United States. In 1948, the United States maintained an arms embargo on Israel. Today, the United States is complicit in continuing the Nakba.
📺 WATCH: The IMEU published a video highlighting the parallels between the beginning of the Nakba in 1948 and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
📖 LEARN MORE: Read a policy backgrounder published by the IMEU in 2022 which details the history of the Nakba, how the US historically responded to it, and why Congress should reject attempts to differentiate between Palestinians who were displaced in 1948 and their descendants.
IN THE NEWS
INVESTIGATION REVEALS BIDEN ADMIN COMPLICITY IN GAZA FAMINE
An investigation by The Independent has revealed that staffers at USAID raised concerns about the threat of famine in Gaza and that senior USAID and State Department officials repeatedly ignored those warnings. Staffers also criticized the administration’s insistence on ineffective methods of aid delivery such as airdrops instead of using its leverage to persuade Israel to allow more aid into Gaza. One USAID staff member reported that at least 19 internal dissent memos protesting the lack of action by the agency had been sent to senior officials, including USAID Administrator Samantha Power. In response to comments from the administration that it is doing all it can to prevent famine in Gaza, the USAID employee said “I don’t believe that the President of the United States – Israel’s most important ally and benefactor – has so little leverage that he can’t force them to take meaningful steps to really allow in the amount of aid that is necessary to save lives.” They added: “It feels like there was no real effort to force Israel’s hands, in terms of ensuring greater access to humanitarian assistance.”
This report reveals the the Biden administration is not only complicit in the genocide in Gaza by providing weapons for Israel, but is also complicit in the growing threat of starvation faced by Palestinians in Gaza through its failure to act on multiple warnings. Israel’s actions are clearly in violation of US and international law, and Congress must assert its authority to halt all weapons shipments to Israel.
NEW REPORT DETAILS ISRAELI ATTACKS ON AID WORKERS
Human Rights Watch has issued a report detailing at least eight incidents of Israeli forces firing on aid workers’ convoys since October 2023, despite the organizations providing the coordinates of their convoys to Israeli authorities. At least 31 aid workers were killed in these strikes. One of the incidents included in the report is the strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy, which killed 7 humanitarian aid workers. This report provides further details on why the strike on World Central Kitchen was not an isolated mistake and provides further evidence of the risk that Israeli forces pose to humanitarian workers in Gaza.
This report also comes after a UN worker was killed while traveling in a clearly marked UN vehicle near Khan Younis. The aid workers were driving to the European Hospital, the only functioning hospital left in Rafah. Images of the car show windows with bullet holes, in yet another apparently deliberate Israeli targeting of humanitarian workers. Amid Israel’s invasion, over 1 million Palestinians in Rafah are still sheltering for their lives, in desperate need of the aid Israel continues to block. Since October, Israel has killed 190 UN staff members and a total of over 224 aid workers in Gaza.
MORE FEDERAL OFFICIALS PUBLICIZE RESIGNATIONS, CRITICIZE US SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL’S WAR ON GAZA
This week, two more federal officials resigned or criticized the Biden administration’s support for the genocide in Gaza. Harrison Mann, an army major and official with the Defense Intelligence Agency, resigned his army commission in November and revealed to his colleagues this week that he resigned due to “moral injury” caused by support for Israel’s genocide. In his letter to his colleagues, he wrote: “At some point, whatever the justification, you’re either advancing a policy that enables the mass starvation of children, or you’re not.”
Lily Greenberg Call became the first Jewish Biden political appointee to resign over the administration’s support for the genocide in Gaza. Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the Interior Department and veteran of the Biden/Harris presidential campaigns, accused the Biden administration of “making Jews the face of the American war machine” and made clear there are more people in the Biden administration who oppose US support for the Israeli assault on Gaza.
📊 NEW POLL SHOWS BIDEN LOSING VOTERS OVER SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL’S GENOCIDE IN GAZA
A poll published by the New York Times found that 13 percent of 2020 Biden voters who are not voting for him again state that the US position on Israel’s attacks on Gaza is their most important reason for their decision. Gerard Willingham, who spoke to the New York Times about why he will vote for a third party candidate instead of Biden, said that Biden’s response to Gaza is “starting to reach into [his] moral conscience” and is the issue that is motivating him to vote for a third party. This poll is the latest in mounting evidence that President Biden’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza is eroding support among key sectors of his base and imperiling his reelection campaign.
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
WHISTLEBLOWERS DETAIL ABUSE, TORTURE OF PALESTINIANS AT ISRAELI DETENTION CENTER
A CNN report revealed horrific details about Israel’s torture of Palestinians whom it has taken captive from Gaza. According to the investigation, Palestinians at an Israeli detention camp have been subjected to forms of torture including beatings, being stripped, being fed through straws, and having limbs amputated as a result of injuries sustained from inhumane handcuffing. The accounts of whistleblowers echo what Palestinians held by Israel have said for years about their experiences in Israeli captivity
AMERICAN DOCTORS STRANDED IN GAZA REPORT ON CONSEQUENCES OF ISRAELI OBSTRUCTION OF AID
More than 20 American doctors and medical workers are stranded at the European Hospital in Gaza as a result of Israel’s closure of the Rafah gate. The doctors are reportedly rationing water and facing dehydration as supplies continue to run low for the more than one million people who are displaced in Rafah.
🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY: Speaking to The Intercept about the possibility of replacing themselves with more humanitarian workers to prevent Israeli forces from invading the hospital, Monica Johnston, a nurse who is volunteering at the hospital, revealed that the plan “is for the U.N. to do a test run from the hospital to the border Tuesday, only carrying U.N. staff. If those staff are not killed by the IDF — as one international employee was on Monday — then on Wednesday two medical staff will be taken to the border, and two new volunteers will be allowed in to replace them, and so on in coming days.”
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PALESTINIANS FLEE AS RAFAH INVASION EXPANDS, ISRAELI FORCES STAGE ATTACKS IN NORTHERN GAZA
Israeli forces have resumed attacks in northern Gaza as the Israeli cabinet reportedly voted to expand the Rafah operation. One source who disclosed the vote by the Israeli cabinet reportedly said the expansion could cross President Biden’s “red line”. As nearly 500,000 Palestinians flee Rafah as Israel’s attack intensifies, Biden must live up to his promise and end all weapons shipments to Israel.
Photo credit: Defense Imagery/Flickr. Creative Commons license.