Democrats Question U.S. Claims That Israel Isn’t Violating International Law Using American Weapons

More than two dozen House Democrats sent a letter to the Biden administration on Tuesday questioning its assertions that the Israeli government is using American weapons in full compliance with U.S. and international law, as required by a memo President Joe Biden issued in February.

Texas Democratic Reps. Veronica Escobar and Joaquin Castro led the congressional letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. The 26 Democrats note that for months, “elected representatives, intergovernmental bodies, international courts, Israeli and global human rights observers — along with government officials themselves — have persistently expressed grave concerns regarding the actions of the Netanyahu government.”

Escobar is a national co-chair of Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign, and the letter marks just the latest disagreement she has with the president on a key policy issue. She serves on the House Armed Services Committee, while Castro serves on the intelligence and foreign affairs committees.

The letter is backed by two dozen advocacy organizations including Indivisible, Amnesty International USA, “pro-Israel, pro-peace” Americans for Peace Now, and the Muslim-led MPower Change Action Fund.

Biden’s February memo, known as National Security Memorandum 20, requires countries receiving arms from the U.S. to provide “credible and reliable” assurances that they are complying with humanitarian law. Should Israel not provide such assurances, or if those assurances are deemed to be inadequate, the U.S. would then pause or suspend transfers to it.

“It’s simply outrageous to accept Israel’s ‘assurances’ under the National Security Memorandum-20 (NSM-20) that it’s not committing violations of international humanitarian law or delaying, restricting or blocking US-funded humanitarian assistance,” said Yasmine Taeb, legislative and political director for MPower Action. “These assurances are simply not credible and Israel is therefore not in compliance with the NSM-20 which requires the Biden administration to suspend arms to Israel immediately.”

The Defense and State departments declined to comment. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to a request for comment.

In recent weeks, the Biden administration has repeatedly asserted that Israel is in compliance with the memo.

“We have not found [Israel] to be in violation of international humanitarian law, either when it comes to the conduct of the war or when it comes to the provision of humanitarian assistance,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said during a press briefing last month. By that point, Israel had already killed some 200 humanitarian workers in its war on Gaza and had spent months blocking aid deliveries, prompting the U.S. to begin air-dropping aid packages and proposing to build a pier to facilitate aid deliveries.

Days later, The Intercept asked Miller for clarity on what these “assurances” from Israel look like. Miller said only that the Israeli government had provided assurances “that are consistent with the requirements of the national security memo” and that the U.S. processes for “examining specific incidents in the conduct of the campaign” are ongoing and had not yet concluded.

The Democrats’ letter scrutinizes those “processes,” asking which agencies have been involved in assessing Israel’s conduct in Gaza, and whether and how the State Department, the Department of Defense, and the intelligence community have contributed to the process.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, reasserted its defense of Israel’s compliance with international law after Israeli forces killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers on April 1. White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said not only was there no evidence that Israel deliberately attacked the clearly marked aid vehicle, there in fact has been no incident for which the administration has found Israel to be violating international humanitarian law.

Israel’s conduct in Gaza has come under increased scrutiny following the strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy — which killed several Westerners, including a dual citizen of Canada and the United States — and on an Iranian consulate building in Syria.

Prompted by the strike against World Central Kitchen — an organization captained by D.C. chef and global humanitarian José Andrés — 40 members of Congress, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, sent a letter calling to halt weapons transfers to Israel and for an independent inquiry into the attack. 

That effort garnered much more support than Sen. Bernie Sanders’s January resolution that would have required the State Department to submit a report to Congress about allegations of Israel committing human rights violations, and whether and how the U.S. played a role and responded to such acts. The text opened the door for the government to then possibly condition, restrict, or terminate military aid to Israel. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, forced a vote on the resolution, and his Senate colleagues voted 72-11 to table it. 

This week’s congressional letter also cited a March 23 statement from dozens of organizations — including Doctors Without Borders, International Rescue Committee, Oxfam America, and Save the Children USA — that called out Israeli authorities “consistently and arbitrarily” denying, restricting, and impeding humanitarian aid.

“We remain concerned by the stark differences and gaps in the assessments being made by the State Department and White House on how Israel has not been found to be in violation of international humanitarian law, either when it comes to the conduct of the war or when it comes to the provision of humanitarian assistance, which are contradictory to those made by prominent experts and global institutions,” the members of Congress wrote.

The letter’s Democratic signatories are:

• Earl Blumenauer (OR)
• Jamaal Bowman (NY)
• Cori Bush (MO)
• André Carson (IN)
• Greg Casar (TX)
• Sean Casten (IL)
• Joaquin Castro (TX)
• Madeleine Dean (PA)
• Mark DeSaulnier (CA)
• Lloyd Doggett (TX)
• Veronica Escobar (TX)
• Maxwell Alejandro Frost (FL)
• Jesús “Chuy” García (IL)
• Pramila Jayapal (WA)
• Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr. (GA)
• Stephen Lynch (MA)
• James McGovern (MA)
• Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC)
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY)
• Ilhan Omar (MN)
• Mark Pocan (WI)
• Ayanna Pressley (MA)
• Delia Ramirez (IL)
• Rashida Tlaib (MI)
• Jill Tokuda (HI)
• Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ)

Update: April 18, 2024
This article was updated to note that, in a response received after publication, the Department of State declined to comment.

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