TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / September 26, 2024
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called for Blinken to resign after a report suggesting he misled Congress on Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken disregarded assessments from two “foremost authorities” that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza, suggesting he presented a misleading report to Congress, according to the investigative ProPublica news outlet.
In a report on Tuesday, ProPublica said the US Agency for International Development (USAID) delivered a 17-page assessment to Blinken and the State Department’s refugees bureau in late April.
“Their conclusion was explosive because U.S. law requires the government to cut off weapons shipments to countries that prevent the delivery of U.S.-backed humanitarian aid,” the report said.
However, Blinken “and the administration of President Joe Biden did not accept either finding,” and a few days later, on May 10, Blinken “delivered a carefully worded statement to Congress.”
“We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance,” Blinken reportedly said.
‘Israeli Interference’
The assessment by USAID “described instances of Israeli interference with aid efforts, including killing aid workers, razing agricultural structures, bombing ambulances and hospitals, sitting on supply depots and routinely turning away trucks full of food and medicine.”
It also indicated that “lifesaving food was stockpiled less than 30 miles across the border in an Israeli port, including enough flour to feed about 1.5 million Palestinians for five months.”
However in February, the Israeli government prohibited the transfer of flour, after its UN recipient had been accused of having ties to Hamas, the report said.
In a memo obtained by ProPublica, USAID said that the looming famine was the result of Israel’s “arbitrary denial, restriction, and impediments of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”
The organization described the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the world” and advised that “because of Israel’s Israel’s behaviour, the U.S. should pause additional arms sales to the country,” the report said.
Taxpayers dollars
According to emails obtained by ProPublica, the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration had also determined that “Israel was blocking humanitarian aid and that the Foreign Assistance Act should be triggered to freeze almost $830 million in taxpayer dollars earmarked for weapons and bombs to Israel.”
Following questions from ProPublica, a State Department spokesperson said it had “made clear” in May when its report was released, that the US had deep concerns during the period since October 7 about action and inaction by Israel that contributed to a lack of sustained delivery of needed humanitarian assistance.”
“Israel subsequently took steps to facilitate increased humanitarian access and aid flow into Gaza,” the spokesperson added.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
Call for resignation
Following the report, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called for Blinken to resign after a report suggesting he misled Congress on Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“Secretary Blinken and the Biden administration ignored Israel’s blocking of humanitarian aid to the suffering people of Gaza – which is a violation of American law – and lied about it to Congress,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement on Tuesday.
“ When a senior American official lies to Congress in the middle of genocide so that the government can keep funding that genocide, he is deliberately flouting the law and prolonging the suffering of millions of innocent people who desperately need our government to stop funding their slaughter.”
Awad said “Secretary Blinken may have committed a crime with his lies. The American people deserve honest and upright leaders to represent their values and protect their interests.
“He must resign, and the Biden administration must be held accountable for its violation of the law and its complicity in the Israeli genocide in Gaza.”
CAIR, America’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, last month said Blinken should resign after reports that he has ended the investigation into the Israel military’s Netzah Yehuda battalion for war crimes and human rights violations in the occupied West Bank.
The organization also repeated its call for the Biden administration to impose an arms embargo on Israel as it launched attacks on Lebanon “using American weapons that have already killed hundreds, including women and children.”
