CAIR Calls for Resignation of Secretary of State Blinken After Report He Lied to Congress About Israel Blocking Aid to Gaza.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called for the resignation of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken after he reportedly lied to Congress after two government authorities concluded that Israel deliberately blocked deliveries of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
According to ProPublica: “The U.S. Agency for International Development delivered its assessment to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the State Department’s refugees bureau made its stance known to top diplomats 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. Israel has been largely dependent on American bombs and other weapons in Gaza since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.
“But Blinken and the administration of President Joe Biden did not accept either finding. Days later, on May 10, Blinken delivered a carefully worded statement to Congress that said, ‘We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.’”
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“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. 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.
“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.”
Last month, CAIR said Blinken should resign after reports that he has ended the investigation into the Israel military’s Netzah Yehuda battalion for war crimes human rights violations in the occupied West Bank.
Yesterday, CAIR repeated its call for the Biden administration to impose an arms embargo on Israel as that nation’s far-right government launched attacks on Lebanon using American weapons that have already killed hundreds, including many women and children.
CAIR also said the arms embargo was necessary immediately because of a proposed Israeli “extermination zone” in Gaza in which every remaining human being would be starved to death or targeted by U.S. weapons.
Over the weekend, CAIR called on President Biden to take action to rein in the “out-of-control” far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu after Israel again slaughtered Palestinian children in Gaza.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has already resulted in the killing of at least 41,272 Palestinians, including 16,795 children and 11,378 women. Most Gazans have been forced from their homes, which were then destroyed in a Israeli campaign of mass destruction and ethnic cleansing.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com
TruthOut: Advocates Demand Blinken Resign After Report Reveals “Egregiously Illegal” Acts
Two US agencies said domestic law dictated a suspension of military aid to Israel, but Blinken rebuffed the findings.By Sharon Zhang , TruthoutPublished
September 25, 2024
alls have grown for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to resign or be impeached, after a bombshell report revealed that he lied to Congress about internal Biden administration recommendations that the U.S. suspend weapons shipments to Israel over myriad human rights violations — a move that one advocacy group said is “egregiously illegal.”
Muslim and Arab rights groups and commentators said that Blinken’s clear flouting of international and domestic law in order to continue funding Israel’s genocide in Gaza is grounds for him to be removed.
“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,” said Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) National Executive Director Nihad Awad.
“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,” Awad went on.
Editor-in-chief of Zeteo News, Mehdi Hasan, simply said: “Blinken should be impeached.”
On Tuesday, ProPublica published a report finding that the U.S.’s top two authorities on humanitarian aid had concluded this spring that Israel was deliberately blocking aid from entering Gaza, and delivered those findings to Blinken. This lined up with reports from humanitarian aid organizations working in Gaza that had been raising alarm for months about Israel’s blockade, which was creating a famine and epidemics across the Gaza Strip.
The conclusions, from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, meant that officials were required under U.S. law to stop sending Israel weapons.
Specifically, the refugee bureau recommended that roughly $830 million of taxpayer money slated for Israeli military assistance should be paused. USAID, on the other hand, recommended that the U.S. pause all additional arms sales to Israel, ProPublica reported, with Israel having created “one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the world” in Gaza.
But on May 10, days after USAID delivered its report — and after a UN agency declared that north Gaza was in a “full-blown famine” — Blinken’s State Department delivered a report to Congress finding that, while Israel may be obstructing aid, there was not sufficient evidence to conclude that arms transfers must be paused.
The Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project said the report shows Blinken is openly violating the law.
“Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act prohibits sending weapons to any nation blocking aid. We now know Secretary Blinken knew about Israel’s violations and lied to Congress about what he knew to keep sending weapons,” the group wrote. “This is egregiously illegal. There must be repercussions.”
The agencies’ findings came at a critical time in Israel’s genocide. In early May, Israel had just begun its invasion of Rafah — a move the Biden administration had once said would be a “red line” for Israel’s assault. As part of that attack, on what was once the last relatively “safe” harbor for Palestinians in the region, Israel took over Gaza’s southern crossing into Egypt that had been the main pathway for humanitarian aid to enter the region.
Since then, Israel has turned Rafah into a unlivable ghost town and corralled nearly the entire population of Gaza into a narrow strip of desert with extremely sparse infrastructure — and bombed Palestinians there. The closure of the Rafah crossing has seemingly permanently intensified Israel’s aid blockade, with a sharp decline in incoming aid shipments since May and a record low last month of only 69 truckloads per day on average.
Despite this, Blinken has defended his brazen actions from this spring. When asked about the ProPublica findings on CBS, Blinken brushed aside concerns, saying that what he did was “actually pretty typical” for someone in his position.
Link: https://truthout.org/articles/advocates-demand-blinken-resign-after-report-reveals-egregiously-illegal-acts/
CODEPINK Calls For the Resignation of Sec. of State Antony Blinken
Sept. 25, 2024
Media Contact: Melissa Garriga | melissa@codepink.org
“We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting,” Secretary Antony Blinken to Congress, May 10, 2024.
CODEPINK demands the immediate resignation of Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The United States continues to enable Israel’s crimes against humanity, and Blinken’s lies before Congress are the latest evidence of the Biden administration’s complicity. His actions, in stark violation of domestic and international law, directly contributed to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
When confronted with the U.S. Agency for International Development’s assessment that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid — an act that should have immediately halted U.S. weapons shipments to Israel — Blinken and the Biden administration deliberately ignored the truth. On May 10, Blinken falsely assured Congress that Israel was not restricting U.S. humanitarian aid. This was after the State Department’s own Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) also determined the U.S. had a legal obligation to halt arms transfers. Blinken’s lie ensured U.S. taxpayer money would continue to be sent to Israel, and people have died as a result. The blood is on Blinken’s hands.
Humanitarian aid is crucial for sustaining life in Gaza. Before Israel’s current genocide campaign, around 500 aid trucks entered Gaza daily. In September of 2024, only 67 aid trucks entered Gaza — the lowest number since October 2023. Before that, In April, Human Rights Watch reported the tragic deaths of 32 people, including 28 children, from malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza. That number has continued to grow. These deaths are preventable, but the Israeli government is deliberately pursuing a starvation policy. The Biden administration, instead of taking action to enforce an arms embargo as required by U.S. law, decided to perpetuate these atrocities by providing Israel with the military support it needs to continue its genocidal campaign.
Secretary Blinken’s decision to lie to Congress, and thus the American people, is not just a betrayal of trust but a crime. To be clear, Secretary Blinken and other U.S. officials have continuously lied to the public to protect Israel and to excuse the United States’ blind support of the genocide in Gaza and the illegal occupation of Israel. By shielding Israel from accountability, Blinken is violating international law and U.S. law. His resignation is the first necessary step for the U.S. to disentangle itself from its role in this inhumane genocide. We call for his resignation and a total arms embargo now. Enough is enough.
