FALCONPOWERS – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Friday that he has made “decisions” regarding allegations that Israel has violated a set of US laws that prohibit the provision of military assistance to individuals or security units committing serious human rights violations.
The Leahy Laws, formulated by Senator Patrick Leahy in the late 1990s, prohibit the provision of military assistance to individuals or security units that commit serious human rights violations without being held accountable. Earlier this week, the independent investigative journalism organization B’Tselem reported that a special committee known as the Israeli Leahy Review Committee had recommended to Blinken months ago that several units of the Israeli army and police were ineligible to receive US assistance due to allegations of human rights violations.
Blinken did not take any action, according to B’Tselem. The organization stated that the incidents under discussion occurred in the West Bank, and most of them took place before the start of the Israeli war with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza on October 7th.
In response to a question at a press conference in Italy about reports suggesting that the State Department recommended cutting military assistance to certain Israeli security units due to possible human rights violations in the West Bank, Blinken did not directly confirm the reports but promised to disclose the results very soon.
He said, “I think you’re referring to what is called the Leahy Law, and we work under it… It’s a very important law… We apply it across the board. And when we conduct these investigations, they take time. And it has to be done very, very carefully, in gathering the facts and analyzing them.”
