Last year, just days into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, a bureau within the State Department raised objections to over a dozen arms shipments to Israel, citing “gross violations” of human rights by the unit slated to receive them. But these objections were ignored, a new report finds, and that unit would later be involved in the single deadliest massacre of the genocide so far.
A Reuters report published Friday finds that, on October 14, 2023, a senior defense adviser within the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., Ori Katzav, emailed a State Department division that approves arms sales to expedite a shipment of 20,000 automatic rifles to the Israeli national police, which includes a so-called counterterrorism unit known as the Yamam.
Per Reuters, a State Department official asked the agency’s Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) bureau to review the sale. DRL deputy assistant secretary Christopher Le Mon recommended that the department deny 16 arms packages, which included rifles and gun parts, as well as grenade launchers. In an email, he cited Yamam’s activities in particular, writing about “numerous reports” of the unit’s “gross violations of human rights.”
But nearly all of the sales went through anyway, according to Reuters. Eight months later, in June, Yamam carried out a massacre in Nuseirat refugee camp that killed at least 274 Palestinians and injured nearly 700 others. Israeli forces retrieved four Israeli captives in that attack — the single deadliest attack of Israel’s genocide.
This exchange — in which internal recommendations to stop arms shipments were ignored by State Department officials — is one of many similar exchanges that have occurred within the department throughout the Gaza genocide, according to a ProPublica report published on Friday.
According to ProPublica, there has been a slew of recommendations within the State Department for partial or total suspension of arms sales to Israel under U.S. and international laws prohibiting weapons transfers to human rights violators. But top State Department appointees have repeatedly rejected these recommendations, despite clear evidence of violations by Israeli forces — and instead, State Department staffers have worked overtime to clear weapons shipments, ProPublica found.
There were other early warnings within the department. According to Reuters, several State Department officials emailed top State Department figures like top Middle East White House adviser Brett McGurk warning of potential war crimes being committed by Israeli forces beginning on October 11, just days after Israel first embarked on its genocide and before it had commenced its ground invasion of Gaza.
In these messages, encompassing three email chains, State Department officials warned of the human rights violations already being committed in Gaza. Diplomacy official Bill Russo said that the U.S. is risking “being complicit to potential war crimes by remaining silent on Israel’s actions against civilians,” as Israel was striking hospitals and announced a total blockade of Gaza.
Two days later, a deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, Dana Stroul, warned that Israel’s forced evacuation of 1 million Palestinians in northern Gaza would lead to war crimes charges for Israel, and noted that it is impossible to evacuate that amount of civilians in just the 24 hours allotted; one official said it would lead to a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
In reply, McGurk — who has been a key figure maintaining the U.S.’s role in Israel’s genocide — said that the U.S. may be able to extend the evacuation window, but did not object to the evacuation itself. He then reportedly likened the evacuation order to a U.S.-led military incursion against the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq, in 2016 and 2017, in which over 600,000 civilians were displaced and nearly 6,000 civilians were killed.
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $150,000 in one-time donations and to add 1,500 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy