The president of the liberal Democratic Center for American Progress, Patrick Gaspard, issued a fiery statement Tuesday lambasting the assertion by Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, that it has not found Israel "to be in violation of international humanitarian law, either when it comes to the conduct of the war or when it comes to the provision of humanitarian assistance.”
Among his previous roles as organizer, labor leader, and diplomat—serving as ambassador to South Africa from 2013-2016—Gaspard also served as president of the Open Society Foundation, and worked on the campaigns of Howard Dean, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. He took over the CAP job after the previous president, Neera Tanden, became a special adviser to President Joe Biden in 2021. Gaspard wrote:
The State Department’s shocking assertion that the Netanyahu government is complying with international law in Gaza is a gross disregard of overwhelming evidence and a dangerous precedent in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy.
The stakes here are so high that the administration must be transparent and accountable in sharing with the American people all evidence that has led to this determination and the continued sale of offensive weapons to Israel.
‘We are imposing a complete siege. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel—everything is closed.’ This was the stated goal of Israeli Defense Minister Gallant at the start of the assault on Gaza, and every aspect of this edict has been on open display to the world. It’s a falsehood with catastrophic implications to assert otherwise. The documentation of respected aid organizations, human rights groups, the media, international partners, and State Department bureaus all points to the reality of clear violations of this law and of our values.
The United States, by its own imposed standards, cannot heedlessly deliver offensive weapons as the Israeli government continues to bombard and starve innocents on a mass scale. These actions have nothing to do with self defense; they are clearly intended as collective punishment and are resulting in the complete devastation of Palestinians as a people.
There is no time to spare in pulling back from this outrageous assertion by the State Department: An Israeli incursion into Rafah promises to bring only more death and devastation to civilians—and will make the administration complicit in one of the worst tramplings of human rights in this century.
Miller backed off a teensy bit Tuesday, saying the administration's assessment of Israel's compliance is "ongoing." But he repeated that "we have not reached the conclusion with respect to Israel that they have violated international humanitarian law."
Those aren’t the conclusions made elsewhere. Some human rights organizations and United Nations experts have said Israel has violated international humanitarian law—including the crime of genocide—and called for an immediate arms embargo. Eight U.S. senators have also called for shutting off arms to Israel if it continues to block aid shipments into the Gaza Strip, something Israeli authorities claims it is not doing despite numerous eyewitness accounts from two of those senators and many leaders of NGOs still operating in the Strip.
The U.N.'s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said in a BBC interview this week that there is a "plausible" case that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. If intent was proven, that would amount to a war crime, he said. Israel’s economic minister Nir Barkat, a senior politician in Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, dismissed Türk's warnings as "total nonsense—a totally irresponsible thing to say." He also asserted that Israel is letting in all the aid being offered.
That is something countless officials and other observers on the ground in Israel and Gaza think is total nonsense. Currently, as was the case yesterday and for months prior, the queue of aid trucks is backed up for miles on the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza at Rafah. They must wend their way through a maze of checks and the majority are not allowed to enter.
Meanwhile, foreign affairs officer Annelle Sheline resigned from her State Department position on Wednesday in protest of U.S, policy. She worked in the office that advocates for human rights in the Middle East and said her work has become “impossible.” In an interview with The Washington Post, Sheline said quitting her job in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor was not an easy decision since she has "a daughter and a mortgage." But she said her human rights advocacy had become ineffectual "as long as the U.S. continues to send a steady stream of weapons to Israel."
One problem, Sheline said, is that some partner groups in the Middle East have stopped talking to her office. "If they are willing to engage, they mostly want to talk about Gaza rather than the fact that they are also dealing with extreme repression or threats of imprisonment," Sheline told the Post of the groups her office has routinely worked with for years to further human rights in the region. "The first point they bring up is: How is this happening?"
With more than 32,500 Palestinians already killed according to the Gaza health ministry run by Hamas, much of bomb-devastated northern Gaza now faces famine. NGOs and U.N. officials have been warning about the potential for starvation since late December. The situation in the intervening months has worsened as the number of aid trucks daily making it into Gaza is less a third of the pre-Oct. 7 traffic of some 500 trucks a day. Even if they could be greatly stepped up, air drops of food from the United States and Jordan, and charity operations like the Open Arms shipment of 200 tons of food organized by Chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, are far from adequate, according to NGO experts.
UNICEF's spokesman James Elder said Tuesday that Gaza’s children are dreaming of a slice of cucumber or begging for a tomato. He told the news outlet DPA International that young Gazans told UNICEF workers they hoped to die in the next attack so the nightmare of their lives would end. He said the hospitals were full of completely emaciated children and the few functioning incubators were full of premature babies whose lives were hanging by a thread. This crisis is "man-made," Elder said. "Life saving aid is being obstructed, dignity is being denied." If Israeli authorities opened border crossings in the north, it could end the hunger crisis within a few days, Elder said.
"Gaza has shattered humanity's records for its darkest chapters. Humanity must now urgently write a different chapter," UNICEF spokesman James Elder said at a UN press briefing in Geneva.
"The hostages must go home, the people of Gaza must be allowed to live," he added.
Regarding the challenges that UNICEF as well as other partners face while trying to reach the north to deliver aid, he said that if the existing Erez crossing point, which is "10 minutes from where those people are putting their hands to their mouth pleading for food," could be used in the north, the humanitarian crisis could be "turned around in a matter of days" but efforts to provide aid are being "hampered."
A meeting between Israeli and U.S. officials over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to attack Rafah was canceled when the U.S. abstained on a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. But today those officials are meeting in Washington. U.S. officials have been trying for a month to deter Netanyahu from carrying out his Rafah plan, which critics view as potentially more deadly than the previous attacks since Israel first responded to the Hamas-led Oct. 7 slaughter of 1,200 people in Israel.
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Annelle Sheline’s interview with Democracy Now
