As reported first by Politico:
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and 10 House members have asked the Obama administration to investigate claims that the Israeli and Egyptian security forces have committed “gross violations of human rights” — allegations that infuriated Israel's leader, but, if proven true, could affect U.S. military aid to the countries.
Strangely, Politico felt compelled to put “violations” in quotes. It is especially significant that Senator Leahy signed the letter. The Leahy Law (which he sponsored) prohibits aid to any military/security unit of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights. The list of violations covered by the Leahy Law include torture, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance and rape.
Israel receives over $3bn in military aid per year from the US, mostly in the form of fighter jets and advanced weaponry delivered at no charge. This aid forms a fifth of Israel’s military budget, or roughly $350 per Israeli citizen. The Obama administration is currently discussing raising this figure to $4.5bn. Israel is the largest recipient of US aid in per-capita terms. US aid to Israel since 1950 has equaled 3% of Israeli GDP over that period, or well over $100 Billion. The US provides $1.5 Billion per year to Egypt in the form of military aid, though this was frozen for two years when Sisi’s military government deposed the elected Morsi-led government in a coup. Egypt’s population is ten times Israel’s.
The request to review aid to Israel and Egypt was made in a letter sent to Secretary Kerry in February. In the letter, the senator and representatives say the “manner in which U.S. military assistance has been provided to Israel and Egypt” has hampered the application of the Leahy law. It asks the State Department to investigate several summary executions by Israeli forces listed:
“Israel: Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have reported what may be extrajudicial killings by the Israeli military and police of Fadi Alloun, Saad Al-Atrash, Hadeel Hashlamoun and Mutaz Eqisa. There are alos reports of the use of torture in the cases of Wasim Marouf and Ahmed Manasra.”
The letter also lists several human rights abuses by Egyptian security forces, incluing the Rab’aa Square massacre in August 2013 along with several extrajudicial killings and disappearances. Alongside Leahy’s, the letter carries the signatures of Henry C. “Hank” Johnson (D-GA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Andre Carson (D-IN), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Jim McDermott (D-WA), James McGovern (D-MA), Eleanor Norton (D-DC), Sam Farr (D-CA), Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX). 9 of the 10 representatives are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Israeli PM Netanyahu responded to Sen. Leahy’s request by saying:
“The IDF and Security Forces are not murderers” [...]
"Where is the concern for the violations of the human rights of many Israelis who have been murdered or wounded by criminal killers? This letter should have been addressed to those who incite children to engage in acts of cruel terrorism".
Senator Leahy issued this response to Netanyahu:
The Prime Minister of Israel knows – and it should go without saying – that the United States does not provide weapons or other aid to Hamas or any other terrorist group, and that no nation more strongly condemns and works to eradicate terrorism worldwide than does the United States. There are multiple laws prohibiting such aid to Hamas and other such groups, and one reason Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid is to help defend against terrorist attacks.
The congressional letter cites allegations of possible serious abuses, identified by respected international human rights organizations, by the military and police forces of Egypt and Israel. Under the Leahy Law it is the responsibility of the State Department to evaluate the credibility of such allegations. The Leahy Law, which has existed for nearly 20 years, applies uniformly, worldwide – no country is exempt – and it applies to specific military personnel and units, not to general security forces, when U.S. aid is involved. It has led to the suspension of U.S. aid to military personnel and units found to have committed abuses in many countries when governments fail to punish those responsible, and only when those governments themselves have failed to act. This is only fair to U.S. taxpayers, and it is necessary in upholding the rule of law that our country stands for.
+972mag called Netanyahu’s statement a strange string of lies and as an example of the impunity awaiting Israeli soldiers accused of killing Palestinians, Dahlia Sheindlin recalled this case from 2005:
An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday. [...]
The manner of Iman's killing, and the revelation of a tape recording in which the captain is warned that she was just a child who was "scared to death", made the shooting one of the most controversial since the Palestinian intifada erupted five years ago even though hundreds of other children have also died. [...]
Palestinian witnesses said they saw the captain shoot Iman twice in the head, walk away, turn back and fire a stream of bullets into her body.
More below the fold:
Leahy’s letter takes on additional significance after the release of a video last week that shows an Israel Defense Forces medic shooting ‘Abd al-Fatah a-Sharif, a Palestinian man who lay prone and unmoving on the ground (covered in an earlier diary). The medic arrived at the scene of a suspected stabbing attack which wounded an Israeli soldier in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. After spending several minutes helping treat the soldier and talking to others, the medic walked over to a-Sharif, who was prone on the ground, and shot him in the head.
The IDF medic was initially reported to be charged with murder, but the charges have been downgraded to manslaughter. The medic claims he was acting in self-defense and feared a-Sharif was wearing a suicide vest. There have been no suicide bombings in Israel since 2006, when Hamas gave up the practice. An IDF attorney, Lieutenant Colonel Aduram Riegler, called this a killing in “cold blood” and related events that happened immediately after:
In response to a question by the company commander, who was there and stood near the terrorist and asked the suspect why he opened fire, the suspect replied: 'the terrorist was alive he deserved to die.'"
Riegler said that such remarks are a hint at a confession and also show the motives behind the shooting. "These quotes contain no claims of a life threatening situation, and show the suspect's motives and his mood in real time. As we know the suspect's version (of a life-threatening situation) developed at a later stage."
The Palestinian cameraman who recorded the incident on video and released it to the Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem has received death threats. The medic’s name is being withheld by media in response to the Israeli censor’s directives, though various right wing groups have published his name and photograph in pamphlets and social media advertisements expressing support for him. The Haaretz investigative journalist Uri Blau analyzed the medic’s Facebook postings and concluded they demonstrate “a deep rooted hatred of Palestinians”:
In June 2014 the soldier commented on a cease-fire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas during operation “Protective Edge” in Gaza. “Bibi, you faggot, what’s the deal with cease-fire? Get the hell into them!!!”. He later replied to a supporting comment saying “Yes, kill them all”.
In another post, from June 2015, he wrote: “Give free hand to the heroes of the IDF. Who ever raise a hand – break it…Who ever throw a stone, a molotov bottle or a boobietrap, shoot to kill him”.
Such social media postings are not rare. In 2013, a soldier Instagramed an image of a Palestinian boy in the crosshairs of a sniper scope, while another said on Facebook “there is nothing better than a dead Arab.” In 2010, a female soldier posted pictures of herself smiling next to blindfolded and bound Palestinians with the caption “IDF — the best time of my life”.
The events have been widely reported in the Israeli press. In a poll, 57% of Israelis are supportive of the medic and oppose his “arrest and investigation”. The question did not discuss conviction, it asked about the arrest, and an investigation. 42% described the medic’s action as “responsible” and another 24% described them as a natural response to the situation. Education Minister Naftali Bennett expressed support for the medic by questioning the murder charge, demanding the government support the medic “in deeds, not words", adding that the government "is dancing to the tune of B'Tselem".
PM Benjamin Netanyahu initially condemned the soldier’s actions. Then polls found 68% of Israelis disagree with such condemnations and Netanyahu partially backtracked, saying “questioning the IDF's morality is outrageous and unacceptable… IDF soldiers, our children, maintain a high moral standard when they deal with bloodthirsty murderers”. Netanyahu has also entered into a competition with Bennett where each is talking up his support of the IDF. During his IDF service in 1996, Bennett called in an artillery strike on a UN shelter in Qana, Lebanon killing 106 civilians sheltering there. Bennett was cleared by an IDF investigation. He came under fire in when he said the following during a television debate about releasing Palestinians suspected of terrorism:
According to Yediot Aharonot, Bennett said, “If you catch terrorists, you simply have to kill them.”
National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror reportedly responded by saying that “this is not legal.”
Bennett then allegedly retorted, “I have killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there is no problem with that.”
Crowds of several hundred Israelis, including politicians, have been demonstrating outside the court where the medic is being tried, advocating for his release and calling him “a hero”. The role of a settler-operated ambulance service in the incident is being questioned, since they failed to treat the wounded Palestinian, and reportedly told soldiers they might be wearing suicide vests. The medic who killed a-Sharif shook hands and was congratulated immediately after by Baruch Marzel. Marzel is a Kahanist settler in Hebron:
Elizabeth Tsurkov, a rights activist outside Tel Aviv, pointed out that the soldier’s Facebook activity included liking the accounts of The Shadow — a rapper who organized groups who beat up anti-war protesters during Israel’s 2014 Gaza offensive — and three far-right politicians: Baruch Marzel, Avigdor Lieberman, and the current justice minister, Ayelet Shaked.
“Marzel gives out free pizzas to soldiers who kill attackers on the scene,” Tsurkov told The Intercept in an interview. His slogan, “eliminate a terrorist, get a pizza,” rhymes in Hebrew, she explained.
Speaking about the case, Christof Heyns, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions said:
"The images shown carry all the signs of a clear case of an extrajudicial execution. Whatever legal regime one applies to the case, shooting someone who is no longer a threat is murder."
Israel does not have a death penalty, a bill to create one was voted down in the Knesset late year, though it is being reconsidered. This is one of several such incidents where Israeli forces have shot and killed Palestinians, though this is one of the few to be captured on camera.