A new lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. State Department by Palestinians and Palestinian Americans, accusing the agency of deliberately bypassing a crucial human rights law to continue funding Israeli military units implicated in widespread atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Washington D.C., challenges the U.S. government's failure to enforce the Leahy Law, a 1990s-era legislation that prohibits U.S. military aid to foreign security forces credibly involved in gross human rights violations. This marks the first time that victims of alleged human rights abuses are suing to force the government to comply with this law concerning Israeli military aid.
The plaintiffs include Amal Gaza, a pseudonym for a Gaza-based teacher who lost 20 family members, Shawan Jabarin, the head of Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, who endured years of arbitrary detention, and Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian American with family in Gaza who have been displaced by ongoing Israeli military actions. Along with two other plaintiffs, they are demanding judicial intervention to enforce the Leahy Law, which has previously been applied in cases involving military units from other countries such as Colombia and Nepal.
With reports of nearly 45,000 deaths in Gaza since October and severe restrictions on humanitarian aid, the lawsuit highlights what the plaintiffs describe as an urgent need for the U.S. to stop enabling Israeli military units accused of human rights violations, including torture, forced disappearances, and genocide. The legal challenge is also framed as an attempt to ensure that U.S. tax dollars are not being used to support these alleged abuses.
The Leahy Law was designed to prevent U.S. assistance to foreign forces that have committed significant human rights violations. However, critics argue that the U.S. has applied a different standard to Israel. One former State Department official told the Guardian earlier this year, “The rules were different for Israel.”
The lawsuit points to findings by international bodies such as the International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in connection with alleged human rights violations. However, the U.S. government has consistently rejected these findings and refused to sanction Israeli military units.
The plaintiffs also highlight cases like the 2022 death of 78-year-old Omar As’ad in the West Bank, which prompted investigations under the Leahy Law but was ultimately dismissed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of the human rights group Dawn, which is representing the plaintiffs, criticized the U.S. State Department’s refusal to apply the law, stating, "What the state department is asking the world to believe is that no Israeli unit has ever committed a gross violation of human rights." Whitson also emphasized that the State Department’s stance contradicts its own human rights reports and numerous journalistic investigations.
The legal challenge comes amid mounting internal and external pressure on the Biden administration to reconsider its "ironclad" support for Israel. While some U.S. officials have privately expressed concerns about Israel's adherence to international humanitarian law, the Biden administration has continued to approve military assistance to Israeli forces. In response to increasing calls for accountability, efforts to limit military aid to Israel, such as a resolution to block arms sales proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders, have been rejected by Congress.
Despite the uphill legal battle, plaintiffs like Said Assali, who lost six family members in Israeli airstrikes, believe that pursuing this case is a crucial step toward achieving justice. "It may feel like a fruitless thing, but I think it is correct and right," Assali said. "All movements for social justice took decades."
This case, which reflects growing global scrutiny over U.S. support for Israeli military actions, could have significant implications for future U.S. foreign policy and the enforcement of human rights laws.
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