Tlaib: Blinken Must Resign Over Lies About Israel Blocking Humanitarian Aid
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) is reiterating her call for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to resign after the Biden administration said there is no reason to suspend weapons transfers to Israel, despite evidence that the transfers are violating U.S. human rights law.
In a speech on the House floor this week, Tlaib slammed the Biden administration for its decision this week not to withdraw military support of Israel despite Israel having defied the U.S.’s 30-day deadline to meet certain humanitarian aid demands.
“The Biden administration has continued to ignore reports from its own experts, international human rights organizations and the United Nations that the Israeli government is blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza in violation of U.S. and international law,” the lawmaker said.
Last month, the administration sent a letter to Israel demanding, among other things, that Israeli authorities allow at least 350 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza a day within 30 days — a significant increase from the current levels, but still falling short of what humanitarian groups say is needed to fulfill the needs of the besieged population. If Israel did not meet these conditions, the letter said, the U.S. may end some of its military support.
Israel openly defied this demand. Instead, levels of aid entering Gaza reached record lows in recent weeks, with UN officials reporting that Israel only allowed 30 trucks of aid into Gaza per day on average in October. Not only did Israel fail to meet any of the criteria set forth by the letter, as a group of eight other humanitarian organizations found in a report, but it also “concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza.”
Despite this, the administration said on Tuesday, the end of the 30-day period, that it has not assessed that Israel is violating U.S. law — despite U.S. law mandating that weapons not be sent to actors blocking the delivery of U.S. humanitarian aid.
“We, at this time, have not made assessments that the Israelis are in violation of U.S. law,” said State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel on Tuesday. “We are not giving Israel a pass,” he added, saying that the U.S. has specified that officials would like to see improvement of the humanitarian situation.
Tlaib said that the failure to change policy or even recognize Israel’s wrongdoing is a show that Blinken must step down.
“Secretary Blinken has continued to lie to Congress and should resign,” she said. “U.S. law is very clear. No nation blocking U.S. humanitarian assistance can receive U.S. weapons. The Biden administration cannot pick and choose when they comply with our own laws.”
“Children are forced to eat pet food and bug infested flour,” she went on. “But Blinken says there is no need to change our own policy. Shameful.”
The situation in north Gaza is especially heinous, with officials saying that Israel has not allowed any aid to enter the region in over a month. Haaretz reported on Friday that, the day before the deadline, Israeli forces allowed three UN aid trucks to enter north Gaza, which is now housing an estimated 100,000 Palestinians — and then promptly attacked the aid convoy, leaving it unclear whether the aid reached any residents.
Biden’s refusal to stop weapons transfers showcases the extent of his administration’s participation in Israel’s genocide.
Notably, a group of 80 Democrats in Congress released a letter this week that they sent to President Joe Biden in late October, urging him to sanction some of the most extremist members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration, like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The letter specifically called out the recent escalation of settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, as overseen by the ministers in charge of Israel’s plan to annex the West Bank.
Democrats released the letter to the public after it was met by silence from the administration, despite Israel’s actions in the West Bank having been ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice.