Palestinians file lawsuit against US providing aid to Israeli military
Five Palestinians from Gaza, the West Bank and the US filed a lawsuit against the US government to prevent the country from giving aid to the Israeli military, due to its human rights abuses.
Announced on December 17th, the lawsuit alleges that the US Department of State has breached a federal law which forbids funding to foreign military units which practice torture and extrajudicial killings, according to Al Jazeera.
The Lawsuit says: “The State Department’s calculated failure to apply the Leahy Law is particularly shocking in the face of the unprecedented escalation of Israeli [gross violations of human rights] since the Gaza War erupted on October 7”.
A teacher from Gaza, known under the pseudonym, Amal Gaza, is the lead plaintiff. Gaza has been displaced seven times since the onset of the war and 20 of her relatives have been killed under Israeli attacks.
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In statement alongside the lawsuit, Gaza said: “My suffering and the unimaginable loss my family has endured would be significantly lessened if the US stopped providing military assistance to Israeli units committing gross violations of human rights.”
Known as the Leahy Law, the federal law prohibits the US government from supplying funds to military units if there is “credible information” which shows that it the unit is associated with extreme human rights abuses. The violations also include rape and enforced disappearances.
Israel’s war on gaza has led to over 45,000 deaths, since an attack by Hamas on October 7th last year.
This year, a report, which was published by 21 Israeli NGO’s, stated the country’s abuses within the occupied territories of Gaza and the West bank. The report looked into the annexation, settler violence, famine and dispossession caused by Israel in Gaza
Anadolu Agency, Al Jazeera
