Human rights groups demand Biden to stop arms transfers to Israel after ICJ ruling | Gaza News

Human rights groups have renewed calls for US President Joe Biden to halt arms transfers to Israel after the United Nations’ top court ordered the Israeli government to immediately halt its ground offensive on the city of Rafah. , in southern Gaza, and allow aid to enter the area.

The United States has faced months of pressure to suspend military assistance to Israel as the Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip rises steadily and the humanitarian crisis deepens in the beleaguered enclave.

Biden himself has publicly opposed Israel’s offensive on Rafah – where most of Gaza’s displaced residents have gathered – and his administration has suspended an arms shipment to Israel over his concerns.

However, despite saying in early May that he would retain more weapons if the country moved forward with a full-scale operation in Rafah, Biden has largely backed off 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 order “leaves no ambiguity about what should follow: an arms embargo on Israel.” .

“Continued US arms transfers to Israel would constitute a deliberate defiance of the Court’s orders and make our government complicit in genocide,” she said in a statement.

O @CIJ_ICJ The order to halt the Israeli attack on Rafah underlines the gravity of the situation – nowhere is safe, civilians face starvation and Israel disregards the Court’s binding orders. Governments must use their influence – including arms embargoes and targeted sanctions – to pressure Israel to comply. @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 halt its military offensive and any other action in Rafah province that could inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza living conditions that could provoke their physical destruction.” total or partial destruction”.

Friday’s order did not offer a final determination on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, as alleged by South Africa, which has taken the case to the international court.

Still, the court’s interim ruling “opens up 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 US – one of five veto-wielding council members – has repeatedly protected Israel from Security Council action since the start of the war in Gaza in early October.

Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of Israel-Palestine research at DAWN, said the ICJ’s decision should put pressure on the US to “support any actions by the UN Security Council to enforce the Court’s order”, or risk appear “again before the entire world as the guarantor of Israeli security.” impunity”.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also urged Biden to honor the ICJ ruling “by immediately ending all military assistance to Israel’s genocide.”

“Israel is clearly trying to make Gaza uninhabitable. It must be stopped 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 lawmakers from both major parties.

Still, a growing number of lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have demanded a clearer explanation of whether Israel is using American weapons in Gaza in violation of U.S. and international law.

Israel’s bombing of Gaza has killed more than 35,500 Palestinians, most of them women and children, while the siege of the coastal territory has led to a dire shortage of humanitarian aid and pushed Palestinians to the brink of starvation.

“The entire world is taking action to stop the genocide of Palestinians, including the International Court of Justice,” said US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a member of Biden’s Democratic Party. wrote in X on Friday.

“Where is President Biden’s ‘red line’?” she said.

Earlier this month, the US State Department released a report that found it “reasonable to assess” that Israeli forces had used US weapons in violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

But the department said this did not necessarily refute Israel’s “general commitment” to these standards, and the report concluded that the US could continue to send weapons to Israel.

The Biden administration did not immediately comment on Friday’s ICJ order, nor the new calls to halt arms transfers to Israel.

James Bays, diplomatic editor at Al Jazeera, said the court’s decision creates a difficult situation for the US government as it is in line with Biden’s recent positions.

“The Biden administration has repeatedly said that the Rafah crossing needs to be opened. The Biden administration has repeatedly said it does not want an offensive in Rafah,” Bays noted.

“So the court is simply fully supporting what the US administration has said,” he said. “It will be very, very difficult for the Biden administration to say this is in any way biased.”

However, prominent Republican lawmakers quickly condemned the ICJ order on Friday, with some calling on Biden to reject efforts to make Israel comply with the ruling.

“The ICJ is blinded by anti-Israel bias,” wrote Steve Scalise, the second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, on social media. “Biden must commit to vetoing any UN Security Council resolution that imposes this outrageous decision.”

US Senator Lindsey Graham also said that “the ICJ can go to hell”.

“It is past time to confront these so-called international justice organizations associated with the UN. Your anti-Israel prejudice is overwhelming,” he wrote in X. “This will and must 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 requested arrest warrants for senior Israeli leaders for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Biden called the prosecutor’s action “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 court.

As far as I’m concerned, the ICJ can go to hell.

It is past time to confront these so-called international justice organizations associated with the UN. Your anti-Israel prejudice is overwhelming.

The ICJ’s decision that Israel must cease operations necessary to…

-Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 24, 2024