State Department's Report on Possible IDF Violations in Gaza May Miss Deadline
State Department's Report on Possible IDF Violations in Gaza May Miss Deadline
The Biden administration is mandated to inform Congress on whether or not Israel is operating within international law in Gaza.
The State Department evidently wants to make sure that it dots all its I’s and crosses all its T’s before presenting to Congress its report on whether Israel is in compliance with international law as it carries out its war effort in Gaza — which human rights advocates identified as genocide.
Matthew Miller, the spokesman who faced calls to resign over his defense of Israel, told reporters on Tuesday that the department may “slip a bit” past the Wednesday deadline for Congress, according to Haaretz.
The Trends Journal contacted the department to see if there was any update.
The Times of Israel reported late Tuesday that the White House confirmed that it “held up a large shipment of 2,000- and 500-pound bombs that it feared Israel might use in a major ground operation in the densely populated southern Gaza city of Rafah.”
The Hill said the report is “mandated by National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM 20), which [President Joe] Biden issued in February, and is due by May 8. It requires the administration to assess Israeli assurances that it is using U.S. weapons in line with international laws on war and human rights.”
Dylan Williams, the vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, posted The Hill’s story on X and wrote, “An official US report assessing Israel’s compliance with US & international law comes due tomorrow as:
- dozens of lawmakers say Israel has failed to comply
- Israel invades Rafah against US wishes
- its government denigrates US efforts to negotiate a ceasefire & hostage deal.”
Josh Paul, the long-time U.S. State Department official who resigned in October over the Biden administration’s support for Israel, told WGI.WORLD that “there are multiple instances in which we can clearly identify the use of U.S.-provided weapons in Gaza to commit violations of international law – up to and including war crimes.”
“In this regard we see a U.S. complicity in three ways: first, through the continuing provision of those weapons without any conditions on their use, despite the absolute clarity that is available on how they will be used.
Secondly, through the unwillingness of the United States to apply the standards and laws that it is bound by, and indeed applies elsewhere, to assess whether such violations are occuring, whether at the unit level, as is required by the ‘Leahy Laws’ or on a more systematic basis.”
He continued, “In recent days U.S. Secretary of State Blinken has finally acknowledged, through the Leahy vetting process, that Israeli Security Forces committed gross violations of human rights in the West Bank during the period 2012-2022. In doing so he has recognized what we all know – that history did not start on October 7th, and it is impossible to discuss what Israel should have done after October 7th without discussing what it should not have been doing before October 7th.”
Annelle Sheline, a human rights official at the U.S. State Department, who resigned, shared Paul’s comments on X.
She cited previous comments from Miller as a key reason why she resigned.
She said the State Department is lying when it says Israel is complying by international rules.
“Just recently, the State Department ascertained that Israel is in compliance with international law in the conduct of the war and in providing humanitarian assistance. To say this when Israel is preventing the adequate entrance of humanitarian aid and the U.S. is being forced to air drop food to starving Gazans, this finding makes a mockery of the administration’s claims to care about the law or about the fate of innocent Palestinians.”
congress is in violation of the symington amendment and in violation of giving isn'treal any and all welfare .