Joint submission from four bureaus said Israel’s assurances over actions in Gaza were ‘neither credible nor reliable’, points to growing State Department divisions.
Some senior US officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find “credible or reliable” Israel’s assurances that it is using US-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to an internal State Department memo reviewed by Reuters.
Other officials upheld support for Israel’s representation.
Under a National Security Memorandum (NSM) issued by President Joe Biden in February, Blinken must report to Congress by 8 May whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons does not violate US or international law.
By 24 March, at least seven State Department bureaus had sent in their contributions to an initial “options memo” to Blinken. Parts of the memo, which has not been previously reported, were classified.
The submissions to the memo provide the most extensive picture to date of the divisions inside the State Department over whether Israel might be violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.
“Some components in the department favoured accepting Israel’s assurances, some favoured rejecting them and some took no position,” a US official said.
A joint submission from four bureaus – Democracy Human Rights & Labor; Population, Refugees and Migration; Global Criminal Justice and International Organization Affairs – raised “serious concern over non-compliance” with international humanitarian law during Israel’s prosecution of the Gaza war.
Repeated attacks on humanitarian sites
The assessment from the four bureaus said Israel’s assurances were “neither credible nor reliable”. It cited eight examples of Israeli military actions that the officials said raise “serious questions” about potential violations of international humanitarian law.
These included repeatedly striking protected sites and civilian infrastructure; “unconscionably high levels of civilian harm to military advantage”; taking little action to investigate violations or to hold to account those responsible for significant civilian harm and “killing humanitarian workers and journalists at an unprecedented rate”.
The assessment from the four bureaus also cited 11 instances of Israeli military actions the officials said “arbitrarily restrict humanitarian aid”, including rejecting entire trucks of aid due to a single “dual-use” item, “artificial” limitations on inspections as well as repeated attacks on humanitarian sites that should not be hit.
Another submission to the memo reviewed by Reuters, from the bureau of Political and Military Affairs, which deals with US military assistance and arms transfers, warned Blinken that suspending US weapons would limit Israel’s ability to meet potential threats outside its airspace and require Washington to re-evaluate “all ongoing and future sales to other countries in the region”.
Any suspension of US arms sales would invite “provocations” by Iran and aligned militias, the bureau said in its submission, illustrating the push-and-pull inside the department as it prepares to report to Congress.
The submission did not directly address Israel’s assurances.
Inputs to the memo from the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism and US ambassador to Israel Jack Lew said they assessed Israel’s assurances as credible and reliable, a second US official told Reuters.
The State Department’s legal bureau, known as the Office of the Legal Adviser, “did not take a substantive position” on the credibility of Israel’s assurances, a source familiar with the matter said.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the agency doesn’t comment on leaked documents.
“On complex issues, the secretary often hears a diverse range of views from within the department, and he takes all of those views into consideration,” Miller said.
8 May report to Congress
When asked about the memo, an Israeli official said: “Israel is fully committed to its commitments and their implementation, among them the assurances given to the US government.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Biden administration officials repeatedly have said they have not found Israel in violation of international law.
Blinken has seen all of the bureau assessments about Israel’s pledges, the second US official said.
Matthew Miller on 25 March said the department received the pledges. However, the State Department is not expected to render its complete assessment of credibility until the 8 May report to Congress.
Further deliberations between the department’s bureaus are underway ahead of the report’s deadline, the US official said.
USAID also provided input to the memo. “The killing of nearly 32,000 people, of which the GOI (Government of Israel) itself assesses roughly two-thirds are civilian, may well amount to a violation of the international humanitarian law requirement,” USAID officials wrote in the submission.
USAID does not comment on leaked documents, a USAID spokesperson said.
The warnings about Israel’s possible breaches of international humanitarian law made by some senior State Department officials come as Israel is vowing to launch a military offensive into Rafah, the southern-most pocket of the Gaza Strip that is home to over a million people displaced by the war, despite repeated warnings from Washington not to do so.
Israel’s military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed over 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health authorities, most of them women and children.
The National Security Memorandum was issued in early February after Democratic lawmakers began questioning whether Israel was abiding by international law.
The memorandum imposed no new legal requirements but asked the State Department to demand written assurances from countries receiving US-funded weapons that they are not violating international humanitarian law or blocking US humanitarian assistance.
It also required the administration to submit an annual report to Congress to assess whether countries are adhering to international law and not impeding the flow of humanitarian aid.
If Israel’s assurances are called into question, Biden would have the option to “remediate” the situation through actions ranging from seeking fresh assurances to suspending further US weapons transfers, according to the memorandum.
Biden can suspend or put conditions on US weapons transfers at any time.
He has so far resisted calls from rights groups, left-leaning Democrats and Arab American groups to do so.
But earlier this month he threatened for the first time to put conditions on the transfer of US weapons to Israel, if it does not take concrete steps to improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
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Comments
15 responses to “US Internal memo: Israel may be violating international law in Gaza”
Israel, created from its Original Sin of land theft and murder, is an Apartheid and racist pariah in the community of nations that has no legitimacy. It follows no man-made laws which include contemptuously rejecting all UN resolutions that have condemned its behavior. Its arrogance is fueled by the U.S. unconditional support it offers. IT once attacked a U.S. Navy ship USS Liberty killing about 40 U.S. serviceman and injuring over 150. It should not exist.
Support of Israel is now a litmus test for stupidity and/or cold-heartedness!
Blinken is first a Jew, before anything else. Blinken said so himself, when he visited Israel after October 7th. American Jews (AIPAC, ADL, etc.) have succeeded in buying the U.S. Government, and completely control what Washington does, or doesn’t do! In effect, Israel is in charge, and the USA is nothing more than a vassal State of Israel. Israel can and will do whatever it wants, and the USA will follow the orders from its master. And, that’s the truth!
Not only do I agree with you Jack, but I’m also very familiar with the subject in your comment and also with Tillotson’s above. As a Canadian, how can I possibly condemn you guys when my own country’s parliament, paid homage to a Nazi war criminal with a standing ovation by the three official political parties. As far as Israel ignoring the law, that is the understatement of the century. Unfortunately, it is an entity that, like your country, has lived outside of the norms and laws of civilized society. Fair retribution to both of them can not be far behind, I hate to tell you.
“Blinken is first a Jew, before anything else.”
Well said, Jack! The U.S. Government is loaded with Jews (or Shabbos goys totally controlled by Jews) like Blinken who are Jews first and Americans second…based on all we have seen to this point, where do you think their true loyalties lie? That is why Israel and other Jewish interests always come first and America is left playing second fiddle by the very politicians that took an oath to put America first!
How can the deplorables put Master Trump back in power, someone who’s battle cry is America First, and plans to follow Zionist Biden to the grave of the republic?
I’m not sure I get the gist of your reply to my comment? For the record, I loathe both Trump and Biden, and my use of “America first” in my comment does not mean I support Donald Trump in any way, shape, or form! Neither Trump nor Biden, both being slaves to Jewish power and interests, put America first and, as an American, I wish we had leaders who made American interests their number one priority.
I’m sick and tired of the U.S. being forced to serve the abominable interests of Israel and the Jewish lobby, while it is systematically being looted to fund their genocide and endless wars in the middle east and beyond. Politicians like Trump and Biden, and scores just like them, are participating, whether they realize it or not, in the destruction of the country they are supposed to serve!
What Blinken meant on 12 October 2024 when he said: “I come before you as a Jew.” He meant, he is Jew first, and U.S. Secretary second. It is a fact that all Jews practice. They have no loyalty outside Israel. Blinken is a chronic liar. He is an ardent Zionist who tells lies about everything, including about his family background. Blinken has Palestinian blood on his hands, just like all the Jews and goyim in the Biden’s regime.
I repeat, the Jews are holding the U.S.-led West by the neck and they are fighting to do the same to the rest of the world. The Jews in Israel have killed over 37,000 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children (not counting the mass graves where people buried alive) and wounded more than 78,000 [in what is certainly the worst televised mass murder of defenceless civilians in human history. Blinken and his ilk, including Biden and Netanyahoo should be held accountable and put on trial for committing unspeakable and unconscionable in war crimes.
It is beyond pathetic that these geniuses are still trying to figure out whether Israel is violating international law or not…at this point, the answer should be obvious to anyone with one good eye and a little functioning grey matter! Of course, no doubt, there is a lot of low-grade “B” level playacting going on in the so-called halls of justice…ad nauseum!
I find it only natural Rondo, since both entities have been doing the same since they were born.
First, the murderous Zionist illegal enclave, an evil entity; and second its partner in crime, the United States of America, country who robbed Mexico of half its territory, didn’t comply with any agreement made with native people killed them wholesale, herding whatever was left of them to reservations into a life of alcoholism and destitution to this very day.
Natural born killers, both of them, at home and in America’s case all over the world.
Well said, and so true. Dissenting voices have been coming from inside the government for months. Now US and global campuses have risen up in outrage over the Israeli-US crimes. But still the policy of protecting Israel no matter what and at all costs dominates the US government. If there is any justice in the world, i.e. reaping what you sow, a day of reckoning will be coming.
Why won’t Hamas turn over all the barbarians that participated in war crimes when they attacked Israel, then the innocents would be safe.
Anonymous, the white supremist Jews have been illegally occupying Palestine for 75 years. It’s time for the Jewish thieves, murderers, and liars to return to wherever they came from and for US taxpayers to stop paying that low life Jewish vermin.
testing
Israel’s a racist state that uses Nazi like tactics against the Palestinians.
Let me repeat that: the Zionist project is racist to the core and extremely Nazi like in its exclusivity, use of violence and hegemonic designs.
Sincerely,
Drew Hunkins
Madison, WI