Human rights groups have renewed calls for US President Joe Biden to stop arms transfers to Israel, after the United Nations’ highest court ordered the Israeli government to immediately halt end its ground offensive in the southern Gaza town of Rafah and allow aid to the region.
The United States has faced pressure for months to withhold military aid to Israel as the Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip steadily rose and a humanitarian crisis deepened in the besieged enclave.
Biden himself publicly opposed the Israeli offensive in Rafah – where the majority of displaced Gaza residents had gathered – and his administration suspended an arms shipment to Israel over his concerns.
Yet despite saying in early May that he would withhold more weapons if the country undertakes a large-scale operation in Rafah, Biden has largely backed away from using such leverage as Israeli leaders have rejected Washington’s warnings.
On Friday, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said the International Court of Justice’s order “leaves no ambiguity about what should follow: an arms embargo against Israel.” .
“Continued U.S. arms transfers to Israel would constitute a deliberate defiance of the Court’s orders and render our government complicit in genocide,” she said in a statement.
THE @CIJ_ICJ The order to end the Israeli assault on Rafah underscores the gravity of the situation: nowhere is safe, civilians face starvation, and Israel is ignoring the Court’s binding orders. Governments should use their influence – including arms embargoes and targeted sanctions – to pressure Israel into compliance. @hrw pic.twitter.com/PavLoBjKfh
– Omar Shakir (@OmarSShakir) May 24, 2024
Citing the “immense risk” to Palestinians in Gaza, the ICJ said Israel must “immediately end its military offensive and any other actions in the Rafah governorate that could impose conditions of deprivation on the Palestinian group in Gaza.” life likely to result in his physical arrest.” total or partial destruction.
Friday’s order does not definitively determine whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, as claimed by South Africa, which brought the case to the international tribunal.
Nonetheless, the court’s interim ruling “opens the possibility of relief” for the people of Rafah, said Balkees Jarrah, associate director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“But only if governments use their influence, including through arms embargoes and targeted sanctions, to force Israel to urgently implement the Court’s measures,” Jarrah said.
Human rights observers also noted that the decision creates a basis for the UN Security Council to take more resolute action against Israel.
The United States – one of five veto-wielding Council members – has repeatedly shielded Israel from Security Council action since the Gaza war began in early October.
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of Israeli-Palestinian research at DAWN, said the ICJ’s decision should push the United States to “support any action by the UN Security Council to enforce the order of the Court”, under penalty of risking appearing “again before the whole world as the guarantor of Israeli rights”. impunity”.
Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American Islam Relations, also urged Biden to honor the ICJ’s ruling “by immediately ending all military assistance to Israel’s genocide.”
“Israel is clearly trying to make Gaza uninhabitable. We must prevent him from achieving this monstrous goal,” Awad said in a statement.
Bipartisan support for Israel
Israel continues to enjoy broad support among senior Biden administration officials, including the US president himself, as well as among lawmakers from both major parties.
Yet a growing number of lawmakers in Washington DC have demanded clearer accountability over whether Israel is using US weapons in Gaza in violation of US and international law.
Israeli bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 35,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, while the siege of the coastal territory has led to severe shortages of humanitarian aid and pushed Palestinians to the brink of famine.
“The whole world is taking action to end the genocide of the Palestinians, including the International Court of Justice,” US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a member of Biden’s Democratic Party, wrote on X on Friday.
“Where is President Biden’s ‘red line’? she says.
Earlier this month, the US State Department released a report finding it “reasonable to assess” that Israeli forces had used US weapons in violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza.
But the ministry said that did not necessarily refute Israel’s “overall commitment” to those standards, and the report concluded that the United States could continue sending weapons to Israel.
The Biden administration did not immediately comment on the ICJ order Friday, nor on renewed calls to suspend arms transfers to Israel.
James Bays, Tel Aviv Tribune’s diplomatic editor, said the court’s decision, however, creates a difficult situation for the US government because it is consistent with Biden’s recent positions.
“The Biden administration has repeatedly stated that the Rafah crossing must be open. The Biden administration has repeatedly stated that it does not want an offensive on Rafah,” Bays noted.
“So the court is just completely confirming what the U.S. administration has said,” he said. “It’s going to be very, very difficult for the Biden administration to say that this is somehow biased.”
However, prominent Republican lawmakers quickly condemned the ICJ order on Friday, with some calling on Biden to reject efforts to get Israel to comply with the ruling.
“The ICJ is blinded by anti-Israel bias,” Steve Scalise, the second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, wrote on social media. “Biden must commit to vetoing any UN Security Council resolution that implements this outrageous decision. »
US Senator Lindsey Graham also said that “the ICJ can go to hell.”
“It is high time to stand up to these so-called international justice organizations associated with the UN. Their anti-Israeli bias is overwhelming,” he wrote on X. “This will and should be ignored by Israel. »
Graham is among several US lawmakers who have urged the Biden administration to impose sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the court’s top prosecutor this week sought arrest warrants for senior Israeli leaders on charges of alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Biden called the prosecutor’s decision “outrageous,” while Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested the administration would be willing to work with members of Congress on legislation to penalize the international tribunal.
As far as I’m concerned, the ICJ can go to hell.
It is high time to stand up to these so-called international justice organizations associated with the UN. Their anti-Israel bias is overwhelming.
The ICJ’s ruling that Israel should cease operations necessary to…
– Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 24, 2024
