Above photo: CNN/social media.
The US has failed to hold Israel accountable in the past for clear human rights abuses.
Including against US citizens.
A classified US State Department report found that Israeli soldiers committed “many hundreds” of potential violations of US human rights law in the Gaza Strip that would require “multiple years” to review, the Washington Post reported on 31 October.
Details of the report prepared by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General were provided to The Post by two US officials.
The report has, for the first time, “acknowledged the scale of Israeli actions in Gaza that fall under the purview of Leahy Laws, the landmark legislation that bars US security assistance to foreign military units credibly accused of gross human rights abuses,” the newspaper wrote.
However, the Office of Inspector General report “raised doubts about the prospects for accountability for Israel’s actions given the large backlog of incidents and the nature of the review process, which is deferential to the Israel Defense Forces,” The Post added.
“What worries me is that accountability will be forgotten now that the noise of the conflict is dying down,” said Charles Blaha, a former State Department official responsible for overseeing the application of the Leahy Laws.
The report was completed just days before the 11 October ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas went into effect. Since that time, Israel has continued to kill Palestinian civilians and restrict aid entering the strip as Palestinians suffer from food shortages, malnutrition, and starvation.
Several atrocities committed by Israeli forces since the start of the genocide two years ago have triggered reviews under the Leahy Laws.
In April 2024, seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers were killed by three Israeli drone strikes, one after another, on three separate WCK vehicles. The drones opened fire, even though the WCK had shared the convoy’s coordinates and route with the Israeli military in advance. The victims held Australian, British, Palestinian, Polish, and dual US-Canadian citizenships.
In February 2024, Israeli forces opened fire, including with tanks, on Palestinians trying to get desperately needed aid in Gaza. At least 112 Palestinians were killed and 760 were injured in what became known as the ‘Flour Massacre.’
However, the White House claimed it was “not able to reach definitive conclusions” on whether US weapons were used in the attacks.
The US provides at least $3.8 billion in aid to Israel yearly, and has provided tens of billions more since 2023 to assist the genocide in Gaza.
However, it is unlikely the US will withhold military aid to Israel and hold units accountable for the many violations mentioned in the new State Department report, The Post writes.
The State Department working group tasked with making determinations about Leahy Law violations includes representatives of the US Embassy in Jerusalem and the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, “two entities that often advocate for Israel within the US system,” the daily went on to say.
If the working group does conclude that Israeli units are ineligible for continued funding, the US secretary of state must approve the finding.
The secretary of state under former US president Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, was a strong advocate for Israel throughout the genocide.
US President Donald Trump’s new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has close ties to Jewish billionaire Paul Singer, who is a strong supporter of Israel and has funded Rubio’s election campaigns over the years.
“To date, the US has not withheld any assistance to any Israeli unit despite clear evidence,” said Josh Paul, a former State Department official speaking with The Post.
Blinken’s State Department refused to halt aid to Israeli units even after a 78-year-old US citizen, Omar Assad, was detained at a checkpoint in the West Bank in 2022 and murdered by Israeli soldiers.
Assad owned a grocery store in the city of Milwaukee in the US state of Wisconsin before returning to his place of birth in Palestine after retiring.
Earlier this week, the New York Times (NYT) reported that a former US military policeman who investigated the 2022 killing of US-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqla said an Israeli soldier deliberately shot her, but his superiors at the State Department changed the conclusions of his report to claim the killing was unintentional.
The US under president Trump has been no better.
“I don’t see any difference between the Biden administration and the Trump administration on this issue,” said Blaha, the former State Department official in charge of the office that implements the Leahy Laws.
