{"id":46945,"date":"2024-04-04T14:33:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T22:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=46945"},"modified":"2024-04-04T14:33:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T22:33:05","slug":"80-groups-urge-biden-to-reverse-course-before-thousands-more-die-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2024\/04\/04\/80-groups-urge-biden-to-reverse-course-before-thousands-more-die-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"80+ Groups Urge Biden to &#8216;Reverse Course Before Thousands More Die&#8217; in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 80 U.S. Muslim, Palestinian, and allied groups on Wednesday implored President Joe Biden to pursue a &#8220;concrete change in policy&#8221; that includes the suspension of arms transfers to Israel as it wages a genocidal war on <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/gaza\">Gaza. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The National Security Memorandum on Safeguards and Accountability With Respect to Transferred Defense Articles and Defense Services <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/presidential-actions\/2024\/02\/08\/national-security-memorandum-on-safeguards-and-accountability-with-respect-to-transferred-defense-articles-and-defense-services\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">prohibits<\/a> our government from transferring arms to nations that violate international law or obstruct U.S. humanitarian aid,&#8221; the groups wrote in a <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/JointLettertoBiden.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">letter<\/a> to the U.S. president. &#8220;Furthermore, the Leahy Law forbids our government from providing military assistance to military units in foreign nations involved in human rights abuses.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Despite overwhelming evidence that the far-right Netanyahu government has spent months engaging in such abuses by blocking access to humanitarian aid and indiscriminately bombing civilians across Gaza, your administration has <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/patrick-gaspard-biden-state-department\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">claimed<\/a> that Israel is complying with U.S. laws,&#8221; the letter states, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n<p>The groups called the Biden administration&#8217;s claim of Israeli legal compliance &#8220;simply put, false.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The American people do not want a change in rhetoric. The American people want a concrete change in policy. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@POTUS<\/a>&#39; decision to destroy his own legacy and the reputation of our nation around the world to enable the Netanyahu government\u2019s genocide has been a disastrous decision.\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3mCfxygVjB\">pic.twitter.com\/3mCfxygVjB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; CAIR National (@CAIRNational) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CAIRNational\/status\/1775602475912892909?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The letter continues:<\/p>\n<p><em>The Israeli government&#8217;s bombing campaign, which you have <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/israel-indiscriminate-bombing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">described<\/a> as &#8220;indiscriminate&#8221; in private, has slaughtered over 32,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The Israeli army has also <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/israel-gaza-aid-scissors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">obstructed<\/a> humanitarian aid deliveries, allowed settlers to block aid trucks, <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/flour-massacre-northern-gaza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">massacred<\/a> Palestinians gathering to collect aid, and assassinated Palestinians charged with coordinating aid deliveries. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Just this week, the Israeli military <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/world-central-kitchen-israel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">deliberately attacked<\/a> three different clearly marked vehicles in a World Central Kitchen convoy, killing seven foreign aid workers \u2013 including an American citizen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We knew early on that the Israeli government would deliberately and systematically commit war crimes during its military invasion of Gaza because Israeli officials openly promised to do so,&#8221; the groups wrote, highlighting some of the <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MacaesBruno\/status\/1722587487237738553\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sanguinary statements <\/a>made by the country&#8217;s leaders following the October 7 attacks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is obvious to every neutral observer that the Israeli government has spent the past five months acting on those ominous, genocidal words,&#8221; the letter says. &#8220;In January, the International Court of Justice <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/watch-live-international-court-of-justice-delivers-ruling-in-israel-genocide-case\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released<\/a> a preliminary ruling deeming South Africa&#8217;s accusation of genocide against the Israeli government plausible. On March 26, the United Nations&#8217; special rapporteur on <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/palestine\">Palestine<\/a> released a report which identified &#8216;reasonable grounds&#8217; to assert that Israel is perpetrating genocide in Gaza.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Your administration&#8217;s plan to certify Israel&#8217;s compliance with U.S. requirements despite these clear facts is both unlawful and morally indefensible,&#8221; the signers argued. &#8220;As former State Department official Annelle Shelline said after <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/state-dept-resigns-gaza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">resigning<\/a>, &#8216;To say this when Israel is preventing the adequate entrance of humanitarian aid and the U.S. is being forced to airdrop to starving Gazans, this finding makes a mockery of the administration&#8217;s claims to care about the law or the fate of innocent Palestinians.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The letter&#8217;s signers are asking Biden to:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"ee-ul\">\n<li>Recognize that the Israeli government&#8217;s actions in Gaza violate U.S. law and your national security memorandum;<\/li>\n<li>Suspend the transfer of all weapons to the Israeli government as required by U.S. law and your national security memorandum;<\/li>\n<li>Use American leverage to secure an immediate, permanent cease-fire, the unimpeded opening of all land crossings to humanitarian aid, the release of all hostages and political prisoners, and the reconstruction of Gaza; and<\/li>\n<li>Pursue a just and lasting peace through an end to the Israeli occupation and <a class=\"rm-stats-tracked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2022\/02\/01\/new-amnesty-report-outlines-true-extent-israeli-apartheid-regime\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">apartheid<\/a> policies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;The American people do not want a change in rhetoric. The American people want a concrete change in policy,&#8221; the letter concludes. &#8220;Risking your presidential legacy and the reputation of our nation around the world to enable the Netanyahu government&#8217;s genocide has been a disastrous decision. We implore you to reverse course before thousands more die.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><i>Brett Wilkins is is staff writer for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/\">Common Dreams<\/a>. Based in San Francisco, his work covers issues of social justice, human rights and war and peace. This originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/\">CommonDreams<\/a> and is reprinted with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 80 U.S. Muslim, Palestinian, and allied groups on Wednesday implored President Joe Biden to pursue a &#8220;concrete change in policy&#8221; that includes the suspension of arms transfers to Israel as it wages a genocidal war on Gaza. &#8220;The National Security Memorandum on Safeguards and Accountability With Respect to Transferred Defense Articles and Defense [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":372,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-46945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"\"Risking your presidential legacy and the reputation of our nation around the world to enable the Netanyahu government's genocide has been a disastrous decision.\""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/372"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46945"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46949,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46945\/revisions\/46949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46945"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=46945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}