SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
aysenur eygi
Lawsuit Claims State Department Illegally Arming Israel via Leahy Law 'Loophole'
"This lawsuit demands one thing and one thing only: for the State Department to obey the law requiring a ban on assistance to abusive Israeli security forces," said one advocate.
Dec 17, 2024
Palestinians and Palestinian Americans on Tuesday filed a lawsuit accusing the U.S. State Department of creating a "loophole" allowing Israel to skirt federal legislation barring American military aid to foreign militaries that violate human rights law.
The lawsuit, which was filed by five individuals and supported by the group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), accuses the State Department and Secretary of State Antony Blinken of violating the Leahy Law, legislation passed in two parts in the late 1990s that built on the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961's proscription of U.S. military aid to foreign security forces that commit gross human rights violations.
According to DAWN, the suit "documents how the State Department has created unique, insurmountable processes to evade the Leahy Law requirement to sanction abusive Israeli units, despite overwhelming evidence of their human rights violations" including "torture, prolonged detention without charge, forced disappearance, and flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, and security, such as genocide, indiscriminate and deliberate killings, and deprivation of items essential to survival, including food, water, fuel, and medicine."
Case plaintiff Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian American from the southern Gazan city of Rafah who has lost numerous relatives in Israeli attacks, toldZeteo's Prem Thakker, "I'm hoping, through this action, through this lawsuit, that we can just call out the federal government to begin to enforce American laws."
The State Department has sparked international outrage by repeatedly finding that Israel is using U.S.-supplied arms in compliance with domestic human rights law, citing the key ally's right to defend itself and the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack. However, Israel's 438-day retaliation has left more than 162,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing in Gaza and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened. Thousands more have been killed or maimed in the West Bank.
South Africa is leading a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Last month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Both men have been warmly welcomed in Washington, D.C.. Congress and the Biden administration have approved tens of billions of dollars in arms transfers to Israel. U.S.-supplied bombs have been used in some of Israel's most notorious airstrikes. The U.S. has also vetoed numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions demanding a Gaza cease-fire.
Today, the White House welcomed Yoav Gallant, charged by the ICC with the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts. What a disgrace.
[image or embed]
— Adil Haque ( @adhaque.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 12:21 PM
"This lawsuit demands one thing and one thing only: for the State Department to obey the law requiring a ban on assistance to abusive Israeli security forces," DAWN executive director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement on Tuesday. "For too long, the State Department has acted as if there's an 'Israel exemption' from the Leahy Law, despite the fact that Congress required it to apply the law to every country in the world. As a result, millions of Palestinians have suffered unimaginable, horrific abuses by Israeli forces using U.S. weapons."
Stephen Rickard, a former U.S. official who helped pass the landmark legislation, said that "long-standing concerns that the State Department was not cutting off aid to specific Israel units as required by the Leahy Law... have been given dramatic urgency by the tragic ongoing crisis in Gaza."
"If the State Department will not comply with the law, then it is time for the courts to vindicate the rule of law and order it to do so," Rickard added.
The new lawsuit came a day after relatives of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi—the Turkish American woman who, according to witnesses, was deliberately shot in the head while peacefully protesting the expansion of Israel's illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank in September—met with Blinken in search of justice and accountability for the activist's killing.
Referring to another American activist killed by Israeli forces while defending Palestinian homes, Hamid Ali, Eygi's widower, said that Blinken "was attentive in listening to us, but unfortunately repeated a lot of the same things that we've been hearing for the past 20 years, particularly since Rachel Corrie's killing."
Ali called Blinken "very deferential to the Israelis," adding that "it felt like he was saying his hands were tied and they weren't able to really do much."
A journalist asked State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller during a Tuesday press conference why the U.S. has not suspended arms transfers to Israel by invoking the Leahy Law and citing the cases of victims like Eygi or Shireen Abu Akleh—the Palestinian American Al Jazeera correspondent who, according to witnesses and several independent probes, was deliberately shot dead by an Israeli sniper in the West Bank in May 2022.
"We have taken those cases extremely seriously," Miller claimed. Referring to Eygi, he added that he made it clear to Israel that "her death was unacceptable, that it should have been avoided, it should have never happened in the first place, that we want to see the results of their investigation, and we want to see them change their rules of engagement."
In October, Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin threatened to cut off weapons to Israel if it did not dramatically improve human rights conditions in Gaza within 30 days. Thirty days came and went with no discernible improvements, yet the arms flow continued.
On Tuesday, 20 progressive lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives led by Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and Greg Casar (D-Texas) sent Blinken and Austin a letter arguing that "the United States government must suspend offensive weapons" shipments to Israel due to its violation of federal and international law.
"U.S. law is clear: If the Netanyahu government does not allow sufficient food and medicine to enter Gaza, then the U.S. cannot send weapons," Casar wrote on social media.
Keep ReadingShow Less
As Biden Defers to Israel, Turkey Plans Arrest Warrants for IDF Killers of Aysenur Eygi
"We will make every effort to ensure that this crime does not go unpunished," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said as new evidence undercut the Israeli military's claims about the killing.
Sep 12, 2024
Turkey's justice minister said Thursday that the country intends to seek international arrest warrants over the Israeli military's killing of Aysenur Eygi, a dual citizen of the United States and Turkey who was shot in the head by an unidentified IDF soldier during a protest in the illegally occupied West Bank last week.
Yilmaz Tunc told journalists that Turkey's chief prosecutor's office is currently investigating "those responsible for the martyrdom and murder of our sister Aysenur Ezgi Eygi" and plans to pursue arrest warrants over the killing, Reutersreported Thursday.
The outlet noted that Tunc said the Turkish government "had evidence regarding the killing," without offering specifics.
Turkey's Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, issued a statement Thursday saying Eygi "was deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli soldiers during a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank."
"We once again condemn this murder committed by the genocidal Netanyahu government," the statement continued. "We will make every effort to ensure that this crime does not go unpunished."
"We fear that if this pattern of impunity does not end with Ms. Eygi, it will only continue to escalate."
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged in a statement earlier this week that it is "highly likely" Eygi was killed "by IDF fire" but insisted she "was hit indirectly and unintentionally" in the heat of a "violent riot."
But a Washington Postinvestigation published Wednesday undercuts that narrative, which eyewitnesses have repeatedly disputed in recent days.
Citing testimony from more than a dozen eyewitnesses as well as video and photographic evidence, the Post reported that "Eygi was shot more than a half-hour after the height of confrontations in [the West Bank village of] Beita, and some 20 minutes after protesters had moved down the main road—more than 200 yards away from Israeli forces."
The IDF "declined to answer questions from The Post about why its forces fired toward the demonstrators so long after they had retreated, and from a distance where they posed no apparent threat," the U.S. newspaper added.
The Post published its investigation shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden faced backlash for parroting the IDF's claim that Eygi's killing was "apparently an accident." Biden later issued a statement saying the "shooting that led to her death is totally unacceptable."
With the Biden administration deferring to the Israeli military's investigation and declining to launch its own probe, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) called for a "thorough independent U.S. investigation, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), into the killing of Ms. Eygi," who recently graduated from the University of Washington.
"Tragically, Washington state is no stranger to this issue," Jayapal and Murray wrote in a letter to Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. "In 2003, Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen and college student from Olympia, Washington, was killed while peacefully protesting the demolition of homes in Gaza. Despite over 70 members of Congress calling for an independent investigation, no such investigation was undertaken."
"We fear that if this pattern of impunity does not end with Ms. Eygi, it will only continue to escalate," they added. "It is imperative that the United States take concrete and decisive action to better protect American citizens."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Biden Rebuked for 'Outrageous' Comments on Israeli Killing of US Citizen
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal said that "we cannot simply accept" the Israeli military's claim that its killing of Aysenur Eygi was "an accident."
Sep 11, 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden faced furious backlash on Tuesday after regurgitating the Israeli military's claim that its killing of an American citizen in the occupied West Bank last week was accidental, a narrative that eyewitnesses have denied.
Speaking to reporters, Biden said the killing of 26-year-old human rights activist Aysenur Eygi—a recent graduate of the University of Washington—was "apparently an accident," adding that the bullet that struck her in the head "ricocheted off the ground."
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) denounced Biden's statement as "unacceptable" and "outrageous."
"We cannot simply accept the IDF's version that this was an 'accident,'" said Jayapal. "We do not know that, it's why we need an independent investigation. What accountability will there be when we keep supplying the weapons against our own laws?"
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said in response to Biden's remarks that "if you are an American, your president not only provides Israel with the bullets that Israel uses to kill you."
"Not only does he not object after Israel has killed you," he continued. "Much worse, he even comes up with insulting excuses to exonerate Israel for murdering you."
The U.S. president's comments mirrored a statement issued earlier Tuesday by the IDF, which said its internal inquiry "found that it is highly likely" that Eygi "was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her" but at another demonstrator whom the Israeli military described as "the key instigator" of a "riot."
"This was no accident and her killers must be held accountable."
Eyewitnesses have disputed the Israeli military's characterization of the moments before the IDF fatally shot Eygi.
Haaretzreported Sunday that it spoke to three eyewitnesses who said that Israeli soldiers shot Eygi "for no reason" and that "there had been no clashes at the time."
"First we heard a shot and it hit a dumpster that two volunteers were sitting behind and then there was a shot that hit Aysenur in the head," one eyewitness, identified as an American told the Israeli newspaper. "I was immediately just so shocked when I saw her laying on the ground, not moving. It was a direct shot to the head, it was not an accident. She was being extra safe out of all of the volunteers, she and her friends were standing the furthest back, in the safest spot that we thought."
Hours after echoing the Israeli military's findings, Biden issued a statement Wednesday saying he was "outraged and deeply saddened by the death of Aysenur Eygi," adding that "the shooting that led to her death is totally unacceptable."
The president went on to once again cite the results of Israel's internal investigation, noting that it indicated Eygi's killing "was the result of a tragic error resulting from an unnecessary escalation."
While pledging to "continue to stay in close contact with Israeli and Palestinian authorities regarding the circumstances that led to Aysenur's death" and calling for "full accountability," Biden did not pledge to launch a U.S. investigation.
Kamala Harris, the vice president and Democratic nominee, released a separate statement Wednesday calling Eygi's killing "a horrific tragedy that never should have happened."
"Israel's preliminary investigation indicated it was the result of a tragic error for which the IDF is responsible," Harris added. "We will continue to press the government of Israel for answers and for continued access to the findings of the investigation so we can have confidence in the results. There must be full accountability."
Eygi's family, which has pushed Biden to order an independent probe of their loved one's killing, said Tuesday that the U.S. president has yet to call to offer his condolences directly.
Hamid Ali, Eygi's partner, said Tuesday that "for four days, we have waited for President Biden to pick up the phone and do the right thing: To call us, offer his condolences, and let us know that he is ordering an independent investigation of the killing of Aysenur."
"This was no accident," Ali added, "and her killers must be held accountable."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular