{"id":1984,"date":"2024-10-09T07:36:24","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T07:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/natharatmouchrika.net\/home\/?p=1984"},"modified":"2024-10-09T07:36:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T07:36:24","slug":"house-democrats-say-impunity-for-israel-violates-us-human-rights-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/natharatmouchrika.net\/home\/?p=1984","title":{"rendered":"House Democrats Say \u2018Impunity\u2019 for Israel Violates US Human Rights Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the death tolls from the U.S.-backed Israeli assaults on Gaza<\/a>\u00a0and Lebanon neared 42,000 and 2,000 respectively, a group of House Democrats this week urged the Biden administration to hold\u00a0Israel<\/a>accountable to human rights standards established under existing domestic law.<\/p>\n

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin dated September 30 but\u00a0first published<\/a>\u00a0Friday by\u00a0HuffPost<\/em>, the Democratic lawmakers\u2014Reps. Jim McGovern (Mass.),\u00a0Barbara Lee<\/a>(Calif.), Betty McCollum (Minn.),\u00a0Mark Pocan<\/a>\u00a0(Wis.), and Joaquin Castro (Texas)\u2014expressed their \u201cdeep alarm regarding the lack of U.S. enforcement of the Leahy Law as it pertains to U.S. assistance to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Named after its author, former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the\u00a0Leahy Laws<\/a>\u00a0were approved in two rounds in the late 1990s. The legislation built on the\u00a0Foreign Assitance Act of 1961<\/a>, which prohibits U.S. military aid to foreign security forces that commit gross human rights violations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strongly urge you to apply the law as written and act swiftly to bar any Israeli military unit that faces credible accusations of committing a gross violation of human rights from receiving U.S. assistance or training,\u201d the lawmakers wrote in their letter.<\/p>\n

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