A coalition of press freedom, civil liberties and human rights organizations sent a letter to the White House on Tuesday calling on the Biden administration to make public a forthcoming report on whether foreign countries – including Israel – are using US military aid in a way that breaks. international humanitarian laws.
For months, members of Congress have demanded assurances that Israel, which receives U.S. military aid, has complied with international and U.S. law — which bans violence against civilians and blocks efforts to aid — in its war in Gaza. In response to this, Chairman Joe Biden released a memo in February, known as NSM-20, requiring federal U.S. agencies to submit a report to Congress on whether countries receiving U.S. military aid are actually complying with the law.
However, the original deadline for the report was May 8 it is currently unclear whether it will be ready to submit on Wednesday.
The Biden administration has not explicitly said whether it will make the report public.
But the letter’s signatories – including Amnesty International USA, Defending Rights & Dissent, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the National Press Photographers Association, the Radio Television Digital News Association and Reporters Without Borders – said the “process laid out in NSM-20 suggests “that the report to Congress should not be classified.
“The public and the press have a particular interest in understanding how the US has assessed the guarantees provided under NSM-20 by all countries receiving US defense items, and especially those in areas of armed conflict,” the statement said. letter.
“Your government has pledged to ‘bring transparency and truth back to government,’” the letter continued. “We urge you to keep this commitment by releasing the … report to Congress under NSM-20 to the press and public.”
The White House did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment, while the National Security Council referred the question to the State Department. The State Department did not immediately respond to HuffPost.
The Biden administration is facing increasing pressure, both at home and from the international community, over its continued diplomatic and military support for the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has so far killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians since October 7. While Hamas this week agreed to a proposal that included a ceasefire and the return of hostages, Israel rejected the plan.
As Israel is poised to invade Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah – despite warnings from allies such as the US due to the city’s large civilian population – legislators and humanitarians are increasingly concerned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has committed war crimes.
An independent expert analysis endorsed by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) — a lawmaker who pushed for the NSM-20 report — said Israel’s actions showed “a clear pattern of violations of international law, failure to to limit civil damage.” best practices and limitations of humanitarian assistance.”
The Biden administration’s response to the upcoming report could cause it to abandon its full support for Israel. Or it could further portray the administration as unable to contain its ally in the Middle East after more than seven months of carnage.
Access to the report “will allow the public to assess the thoroughness and accuracy of the U.S. assessment [a] guarantees from foreign countries, especially in cases where there have been allegations that recipients have used U.S. assistance in ways that violate international and U.S. law,” Tuesday’s letter said.
“Journalists and the public must have access to the May 8 report if they want to understand how the U.S. government is responding to these allegations and determining whether it is adhering to the process and standards set forth in NSM-20.”
Amnesty International, one of the letter’s signatories, published a letter in response to NSM-20 on April 29, accusing Israel of violating the law. If the Biden administration chooses to make its report public, people can compare it to the claims in Amnesty’s letter, Van Hollen told HuffPost in an interview published Friday.
“The Biden administration and the United States lose credibility when we refer to reports from Amnesty or Human Rights Watch that [they] serve[e] our political interests, and sometimes ignores them when they don’t,” the senator told HuffPost. “To be credible, you have to be consistent.”
