Biden Administration Legacy Will be Support for Gaza Genocide, Widespread Regional Instability
(October 7, 2024, Washington D.C.) — The Biden administration should stop hindering a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution mandating a ceasefire in the year-long war on Gaza, as well as the related fighting in the region, and the release of all Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians, DAWN urged Monday.
The U.S. should end its support for Israel's war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza by suspending arms transfers to Israel and ending combat operations that have made the U.S. a party to Israel's conflict, inviting retaliatory attacks on U.S. forces and risking an even broader regional war with Iran.
"The Biden administration's policies over the past year have been an abysmal failure, not only failing to secure a ceasefire to protect all civilians, Israeli and Palestinian alike, but aiding and abetting Israel's belligerence such that we now face the likely prospect of Israel dragging us into a war with Iran," said Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN's executive director. "As we mourn the Israelis and Palestinians killed in the past year, we must recognize that only a UN-mandated ceasefire and arms embargo will halt the needless killing and quash the fanatics lobbying to expand the war for even more killing."
DAWN also urges the UNSC to redouble its efforts to impose an immediate, binding ceasefire in the region and authorize sanctions against states refusing to comply.
"After a year of failed 'diplomacy,' it really is time for the U.S. to stand aside and let other less-partisan countries carry out the moral and legal duty of compelling Israel, the single-most intransigent party at this stage, to accept a ceasefire," said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of research for Israel-Palestine at DAWN. "Pledging not to veto a binding UNSC ceasefire directive would be an important first step in that direction."
DAWN first urged an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and a suspension of arms transfer to Israel a year ago on October 9, 2023, in anticipation of the foreseeable devastation a war in Gaza would produce. As of October 7, 2024, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups are still holding 65 living Israeli nationals, including several children and dozens of other civilians. Israel is currently holding in its prisons over 10,000 Palestinians, over half of whom it has detained without charge or trial (3,398 under so-called "administrative detention" and 1,618 as "unlawful combatants").
On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants and other armed Palestinian groups carried out a massive assault against Israeli civilian communities and military installations along the Gaza border; at least 1,189 people in Israel were killed, roughly 800 of whom were civilians. Since the assault Israel launched the following day, it has killed over 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, although experts expect the final death toll to balloon into the hundreds of thousands as bodies of the missing are recovered, increasing numbers of people die due to starvation or lack of medical care, and the injured succumb to their wounds.
In the ensuing months, Israel has also expanded its military attacks to Lebanon, Syria and Iran, killing and injuring thousands of other civilians, while Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthi Ansarallah forces in Yemen have carried out attacks on Israel and Israeli-linked assets. The U.S. has provided Israel with a nearly limitless supply of munitions and other weapons for its war effort, and has been carrying out combat operations on Israel's behalf, including offensive operations in Yemen and defensive operations from Jordan and elsewhere in response to Iranian missile attacks against Israel.
In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to cease carrying out and prevent further acts in violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, after finding that there was a plausible basis for a case of genocide against Israel. In May, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for, inter alia, the crimes of: using starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally attacking civilians, willful killing, and extermination. In July 2024, the ICJ issued a second, separate advisory opinion finding that Israel's occupation, including of the Gaza Strip prior to October 7, 2023, is illegal and constitutes apartheid, ordered Israel to evacuate the occupied Palestinian territory, and ordered the United Nations and third-states to cease providing assistance to Israel in furtherance of its occupation.
Despite these rulings and countless other findings that Israel has violated the laws of war and committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, the U.S. has repeatedly used its veto and the threat of its veto to block efforts to bring about a ceasefire resolution through the UNSC. While achieving a ceasefire in Gaza must remain a top priority, the United States should also urgently work to prevent further escalation.
A ceasefire in Gaza would bolster efforts to de-escalate other fronts in the existing regional war. Iranian, Hezbollah and Houthi officials have repeatedly stated over the past year that they would be amenable to a ceasefire only if and when Israel ends its war in Gaza. If the war expands to include more direct attacks between Israel and Iran, the U.S. fears that Iran and other groups will start targeting its assets deployed in the region, further expanding the war and dragging the U.S. directly into it.
"The only way to prevent a full-scale war in the region is declaring an immediate arms embargo on Israel and imposing a ceasefire in Gaza, with sanctions for non-compliance," said Raed Jarrar, DAWN's advocacy director. "Without a ceasefire in Gaza, there won't be a deescalation with Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, or Iran."
Halt Weapons Transfers to Israel, Combat Operations in Region
DAWN urges the U.S. to halt weapons transfers to Israel and cease unauthorized combat operations that have made it a party to Israel's conflicts in the region. The U.S. has reportedly sent Israel at least $17.9 billion in military assistance since October 7, 2023, including large and indiscriminate munitions, missiles and artillery shells, and interceptor rockets, along with cash assistance. Such weapons transfers violate U.S. law and international legal obligations. The Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, for instance, prohibits weapons transfers when it is more likely than not that they will be used to commit genocide, crimes against humanity, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. Section 620(I) of the Foreign Assistance Act, for instance, prohibits military assistance to countries that block the delivery of humanitarian aid. The Foreign Assistance Act prohibits assistance to governments that engage in "a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights." The Leahy Laws' prohibit assistance for foreign security forces units when there is credible information that the unit is implicated in grave violations of human rights. Extensive evidence has emerged over the past year documenting how senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have subverted the enforcement of these and other laws.
U.S. weapons transfers to Israel may also subject senior U.S. officials to criminal liability for aiding and abetting Israel's crimes in the ICC's ongoing prosecution of crimes in Palestine. Article 25 of the Rome Statute of the ICC creates individual criminal responsibility for individuals who, "For the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including providing the means for its commission." The Statute also criminalizes other contributions to the commission of Rome Statute crimes that are made "in the knowledge of the intention of the group to commit the crime." The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which the United States is a party, requires states to prevent and punish the crime of genocide, and complicity in genocide is a punishable offense under the convention.
In light of the continued military support that the Biden administration is providing Israel despite extensive evidence of ongoing Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other grave violations of the Rome Statute, DAWN urges the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate senior staff of the Biden administration for their role in aiding and abetting Israel's crimes.
"President Biden and Secretary Blinken have actively aided and abetted Israel's genocide and war crimes through the ongoing provision of arms and combat operations in support of its war effort, but also by blocking all efforts to stop the war," said Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN's executive director. "The ICC prosecutor should consider including senior U.S. officials like Secretary of State Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in his investigation into the crimes taking place in Gaza."
The Biden administration has also carried out U.S. combat operations in support of Israel, including offensive operations in Yemen and defensive operations in the region countering missiles fired by Iran and militants throughout the region, without congressional authorization. The U.S. War Powers Act allows the president to take military action for 60 days, after which it must be halted unless Congress "has declared war or has enacted a specific authorization for such use of United States Armed Forces." Congress has done neither with regard to U.S. military operations in support of Israel in this expanding war, which have far exceeded 60 days.
"The direct participation of U.S. armed forces in both offensive and defensive capacities makes the U.S. a party to the conflict, which in turn makes U.S. forces and bases legitimate military targets under international law," said Whitson. "The requirement for Congressional authorization is meant specifically to prevent the U.S. from being drawn into foreign wars without its consultation, deliberation, and approval."
