USA: fresh warning over complicity in Israeli war crimes as Netanyahu visits Washington

Call for US to halt arms exports to Israel as Benjamin Netanyahu set to meet Joe Biden and potentially Kamala Harris

Visit comes amid spike in civilian deaths from intensified Israeli attacks in Gaza and mass displacement of people in Khan Younis

Amnesty has repeatedly called on UK government to halt arms transfers to Israel

‘President Biden must end US complicity with the government of Israel’s grave violations of international law’ - Paul O’Brien

With the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting Washington for meetings with US officials - including an expected meeting with president Joe Biden and potentially vice president Kamala Harris - Amnesty International has issued a fresh warning over US “complicity” in Israeli war crimes with its weapons transfers to Israel.

In the absence of a UN Security Council arms embargo, Amnesty is calling on all countries to immediately impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups until there is no longer a substantial risk that arms could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international human rights or humanitarian law.

Countries which continue to transfer arms to Israel or Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups with knowledge that the recipient state or group is using these arms to commit “internationally wrongful acts” - which include crimes under international law such as war crimes and crimes against humanity - are not only violating their obligation to ensure respect for international humanitarian law, but are in fact assisting these violations.

Companies manufacturing and exporting arms also have a responsibility to respect human rights and international humanitarian law throughout their value chains. This responsibility is independent of a state’s own human rights obligations and exists over and above compliance with national laws and regulations. Companies providing material assistance in the commission of a war crime can be found legally liable for such a crime.

Paul O’Brien, Amnesty International USA’s Executive Director, said:

“Enough is enough. The US government has been presented with ample evidence from experts around the world that US-origin arms have been used in war crimes and unlawful killings by the Israeli government.

“Amnesty International’s own research has shown on multiple occasions that the government of Israel is using US-supplied weapons in serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, as well as US law and policy.

“The International Court of Justice found the risk of genocide in Gaza is plausible, and even in its own assessment the US determined that it is reasonable to assess that Israeli security forces have used US weapons to violate international humanitarian law.

“Continued weapons transfers will make the US complicit in violations of international law committed with these arms.

“As a first step, President Biden must end US complicity with the government of Israel’s grave violations of international law and immediately suspend the transfer of weapons to the government of Israel.

“President Biden has expressed concern about the actions of Israeli forces in Rafah on a number of occasions and even had one weapons shipment delayed because of these concerns.

“Surely he must know that continued weapons transfers will lead to an even bigger unmitigated -and unlawful - disaster, human suffering and death that he and the U.S. government is enabling with US taxpayer dollars.

“With thousands of civilian lives on the line every single day, the US government and US companies are leaving themselves vulnerable to liability and culpability because of their complicity.

“Now is the time to urgently suspend all transfers of weapons to the government of Israel and push for a permanent ceasefire.”

UK arms to Israel

Amnesty has also repeatedly called on the UK government to halt arms transfers to Israel, including the UK’s continued sale of components for equipment such as US-made F-35 jets despite the clear risk that these could be used by Israel in the commission of serious violations of international law in Gaza and elsewhere. Though official data on licences issued for the export of UK arms lacks detail, in a submission to the High Court in May in an ongoing legal challenge to the UK’s transfer of weapons and other military equipment to Israel, the Government told the court that it had identified 56 licences that risked being used by the Israeli military in Gaza, including 28 current export licences and a further 28 pending licence applications which were being processed by Government departments. These 56 licences, however, are themselves only a fraction of the much larger number - running into hundreds - of licences concerning UK arms exports to Israel. According to the Government submission, the 56 licences were for a wide range of equipment, including for components for combat aircraft, utility helicopters, armoured personnel carriers, naval vessels, radars and targeting equipment. Pending licence applications were for equipment which includes components for military aircraft, weapon sights and targeting equipment, small arms ammunition and materials for the production of military aero-engines.