Blinken Faces Calls to Resign Over Lie That Israel Is Not Blocking Gaza Aid

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced calls to resign on Tuesday following a ProPublica report detailing how he contradicted the findings of his own department's experts in order to maintain the flow of American weaponry to Israel, which has repeatedly used the arms to commit war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

"Secretary Blinken and the Biden administration ignored Israel's blocking of humanitarian aid to the suffering people of Gaza—which is a violation of American law—and lied about it to Congress," said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). "When a senior American official lies to Congress in the middle of genocide so that the government can keep funding that genocide, he is deliberately flouting the law and prolonging the suffering of millions of innocent people who desperately need our government to stop funding their slaughter."

"He must resign," Awad added, "and the Biden administration must be held accountable for its violation of the law and its complicity in the Israeli genocide in Gaza."

"The American people deserve honest and upright leaders to represent their values and protect their interests."

ProPublica's story provides a thorough account—backed by internal communications and other documents—of how the Blinken-led State Department delivered a report to Congress that was at odds with the conclusions of experts within the department as well as those of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The latter agency told Blinken directly in an April memo that Israel was deliberately impeding shipments of U.S. humanitarian assistance, a finding consistent with assessments from the United Nations and outside groups. Under U.S. law, the federal government cannot provide arms or other military equipment to countries obstructing American humanitarian aid.

But in a May report to Congress, the State Department concluded that the Israeli government was not "prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance within the meaning of Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act."

One State Department official, Stacy Gilbert, resigned over the final report to Congress, saying in a statement following her departure that "there is abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid" and that "to deny this is absurd and shameful."

The aid obstructions are ongoing. According to an analysis released last week by a coalition of human rights organizations, Israel's siege is currently blocking over 80% of food aid from reaching Gaza as the enclave faces famine.

Awad of CAIR said Tuesday that "Secretary Blinken may have committed a crime with his lies."

"The American people deserve honest and upright leaders to represent their values and protect their interests," said Awad.

Others echoed the call for Blinken to step down or be removed by lawmakers. Congressional Republicans are currently pushing to hold Blinken in contempt, but for a matter entirely unrelated to U.S. support for Israel's war on Gaza.

Sam Perlo-Freeman, an academic who has worked as a researcher for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and the Campaign Against Arms Trade, said Blinken "should resign or be impeached."

"Of course," he added, "most of Congress was very happy to be lied to and would have denounced Blinken for the truth."