Amnesty issues fresh warning about US complicity in Israeli war crimes

Amnesty International has issued a fresh warning about US complicity in Israeli war crimes as Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington. The human rights NGO also called on the US to halt arms exports to Israel with Netanyahu set to meet Joe Biden and possibly Kamala Harris during his trip.

The Israeli prime minister’s visit comes amid a spike in civilian deaths from intensified Israeli attacks in Gaza and the mass displacement of Palestinians in Khan Younis.

In the absence of a UN Security Council arms embargo, Amnesty is calling on all countries to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel immediately, as well as Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups, until there is no longer a substantial risk that arms could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international human rights or humanitarian law.

Countries which continue to transfer arms to Israel or armed Palestinian groups with knowledge that the recipient state or group is using these arms to commit “internationally wrongful acts” — which include crimes under international law such as war crimes and crimes against humanity — are not only violating their obligation to ensure respect for international humanitarian law, said Amnesty today, but are in fact also assisting these violations.

Companies manufacturing and exporting arms also have a responsibility to respect human rights and international humanitarian law throughout their value chains. This responsibility is independent of a state’s own human rights obligations and exists over and above compliance with national laws and regulations. Any companies providing material assistance in the commission of a war crime can be found legally liable for such a crime.

“Enough is enough,” said Amnesty International USA’s Executive Director Paul O’Brien.

“The US government has been presented with ample evidence from experts around the world that US-origin arms have been used in war crimes and unlawful killings by the Israeli government.”

Amnesty’s own research has shown on multiple occasions that the government of Israel is using US-supplied weapons in serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, as well as US law and policy, added O’Brien. “The International Court of Justice found the risk of genocide in Gaza is plausible, and even in its own assessment the US determined that it is reasonable to assess that Israeli security forces have used US weapons to violate international humanitarian law.”

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Continued weapons transfers will make the US “complicit” in violations of international law committed with these arms, explained the Amnesty official.

“As a first step, President Biden must end US complicity with the government of Israel’s grave violations of international law and immediately suspend the transfer of weapons to the government of Israel. The president has expressed concern about the actions of Israeli forces in Rafah on a number of occasions and even had one weapons shipment delayed because of these concerns.”

Surely, said O’Brien, Biden must know that continued weapons transfers will lead to an even bigger unmitigated — and unlawful — disaster, human suffering and death that he and the US government is enabling with US taxpayer dollars. With thousands of civilian lives on the line every single day, the US government and US companies are leaving themselves vulnerable to liability and culpability because of their complicity.”

Amnesty insisted that now is the time to suspend all transfers of weapons to the government of Israel as a matter of urgency, and push for a permanent ceasefire.

The NGO has called repeatedly on the UK government to halt arms transfers to Israel, including the continued sale of components for equipment such as US-made F-35 jets despite the clear risk that these could be used by Israel in the commission of serious violations of international law in Gaza and elsewhere.

Although official data on licences issued for the export of UK arms lacks detail, in a submission to the High Court in May in an ongoing legal challenge to the UK’s transfer of weapons and other military equipment to Israel, the then Conservative government told the court that it had identified 56 licences that risked being used by the Israeli military in Gaza, including 28 current export licences and a further 28 pending licence applications which were being processed by Government departments. These 56 licences, however, are themselves only a fraction of the much larger number — running into hundreds — of licences concerning UK arms exports to Israel.

According to the British government submission, the 56 licences were for a wide range of equipment, including for components for combat aircraft, utility helicopters, armoured personnel carriers, naval vessels, radars and targeting equipment. Pending licence applications were for equipment which includes components for military aircraft, weapon sights and targeting equipment, small arms ammunition and materials for the production of military aero-engines.

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