As U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller was telling reporters on Tuesday that assessments regarding whether Israel is abiding by international humanitarian law in Gaza are ongoing, more than two dozen rights groups were telling the Biden administration that it need look no further than its own memo released months ago to see that the U.S. must end its support for the Israeli military.
Groups including Amnesty International, the Center for Civilians in Conflict, and Refugees International were among 25 organizations that signed a letter sent Tuesday to President Joe Biden; Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee; and their foreign policy advisers. The letter was sent a day after the British government announced it was suspending 30 arms export licenses for Israel, citing “a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
The letter pointed out that it’s been nearly four months since the administration released its report on May 10 on National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20), which “concluded that U.S.-provided arms had likely been used by Israeli security forces in manners ‘inconsistent with its IHL [international humanitarian law] obligations.'”
NSM-20, issued in February, required Secretary of State Antony Blinken to confirm that countries using U.S. weapons — including Israel, which has received more than 100 military transfers from the U.S. since last October — are not blocking U.S. humanitarian aid and are using the weapons in accordance with international law.
The groups on Tuesday noted that despite the finding in the May 10 report, the administration claimed that Israel’s assurances that it had not used U.S. weapons in strikes that violated international law were “credible and reliable,” and that the U.S. would not suspend weapons transfers at that time.
The claim that Israel’s assurances were credible was in direct opposition to a leaked internal memo in which four State Department officials said they had “serious concern over non-compliance” with international law.
The official assessment released in May also “stood in stark contrast to the realities in Gaza and across occupied Palestine and appeared to blatantly disregard both the requirements of U.S. law and policy and extensive documentation submitted by human rights and humanitarian organizations and independent experts,” reads the new letter, citing reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other groups that detailed how U.S. weapons have been used in attacks that killed civilians and could constitute war crimes.
Moreover, the letter states, “the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has only worsened” since the NSM-20 report, but the U.S. policy of providing “virtually unconditional military support for the Israeli government continues.”
The letter notes that the U.S. continues to support the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) despite continued restrictions on aid flowing into Gaza by Israel, with the level of aid entering Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem crossing dropping by more than 80% over the past three months.
“As a result of the compounding access and delivery challenges, malnutrition and the perpetual risk of famine remains rampant across Gaza,” wrote the groups. “Since your May 10 report, the U.N. estimates a 300% increase in acute malnutrition in Northern Gaza, while the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading analyst on food insecurity, found in June that all of Gaza is at high risk of famine and 96% of the population is currently food insecure.”
Annie Shiel, U.S. advocacy director for the Center for Civilians in Conflict, noted that the Biden administration’s continued military support for Israel as famine takes hold of Gaza may violate the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act — Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
The Biden administration’s continued support for the IDF sends “a political signal of unconditional support for Israel’s conduct,” said Shiel. “The U.S. has the leverage to bring about a cease-fire — but chooses not to use it.”
The letter on Tuesday also pointed to numerous reports that U.S.-made weapons have been used by Israel in attacks that killed civilians since May 10, including:
- A strike that used U.S.-made GBU-39 guided bombs on a camp for internally displaced people in west Rafah on May 26, killing at least 36 people, including six children;
- A July 9 airstrike on a school that killed at least 27 people and used an American small-diameter bomb; and
- An August 10 attack on a school in Gaza City that was being used as a shelter, which killed 93 people using a U.S. small-diameter bomb.
“These developments should compel the United States to suspend arms transfers to the Israeli government under the Conventional Arms Transfer policy, which prohibits arms transfers when ‘the United States assesses that it is more likely than not that the arms to be transferred will be used by the recipient to commit, facilitate the recipients’ commission of, or to aggravate risks that the recipient will commit’ serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law,” wrote the groups.
The organizations urged “an immediate, public review of Israel’s compliance with NSM-20, accounting for the numerous apparent violations of international law and restrictions on humanitarian aid documented by civil society and the media since May 10 and throughout the NSM-20 reporting period.”
As U.S. support continues, said the groups, “the risk of United States’ and U.S. officials’ complicity in Israeli violations of international law due to U.S. arms transfers has only increased.”
“We urgently call upon your administration to change its approach and suspend weapons transfers to Israel, which continue to cause devastating harm and risk making the United States complicit in war crimes,” they wrote. “International and U.S. law, as well as your administration’s policies including NSM-20, require suspending weapons transfers to the Israeli government.”
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