By james art Lawyers from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) have written to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging him to investigate Israel for potential war crimes in Gaza, as well as the killings of US citizens in the West Bank.
“U.S. courts have jurisdiction over more than 23,000 U.S. citizens currently serving in Israel’s armed forces, along with members of the IDF or other Israeli personnel who travel to the United States,” Garland’s unnamed attorneys wrote, as revealed by Zeteo in Monday.
The Justice Department has investigated and sanctioned Russia over the war in Ukraine and the Palestinian group Hamas, but has yet to do the same when it comes to Israel and its war on Gaza — the letter’s authors pointed out.
The Justice Department, they added, “has appropriately demonstrated its commitment to upholding the rule of law in the midst of ongoing geopolitical conflicts,” but this “against the backdrop of multiple potential violations of U.S. law by individuals and entities associated with Israel, the department’s silence and apparent inaction is a complete omission.”
The internal letter is said to outline three areas for investigation by the Justice Department: the accounts of torture, starvation and forced displacement that could amount to war crimes in Gaza; the murders of American citizens such as Shireen Abu Akleh, Omar Assad, and most recently, activist Aysenur Aygi; and illegal settlements in the West Bank supported by American groups with charitable status.
In November 2022, the DOJ unexpectedly opened an investigation into the killing of journalist Abu Akle by Israeli soldiers in Jenin six months earlier.
The norm was for US administrations to submit to Israeli investigations and courts.
Israel has declined to participate in the DOJ effort, and there is still no update on the investigation from the Biden administration.
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Assad, 78, died of a heart attack after being manhandled by Israeli soldiers on his way home from a card game. The US considered sanctions against the Netzah Yehuda Battalion responsible, but ultimately decided against it.
“You told us we ‘should treat cases the same,'” the attorneys wrote in their complaint to Garland. “You insisted that, guided by these norms, ‘we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as a political apparatus.’
The 13-month-old war against Gaza has resulted in the known deaths of at least 42,000 Palestinians, at least 17,000 of them children, according to the Gaza-based government media service.
The Palestinian Civil Defense said at least 10,000 people were missing under the rubble of Gaza’s infrastructure destroyed by Israeli airstrikes and collapsed buildings.
Earlier this year, the International Court of Justice said that “some of Israel’s actions” in Gaza “appear to fall within the provisions of [Genocide] convention”.
The judges also said they were “gravely concerned” about the treatment of Palestinian detainees there. Eyewitness accounts and video footage from local journalists in Gaza show physical and mental signs of torture on the released detainees, many of whom return unable to speak.
As the Israeli siege on the northern third of the Strip intensifies, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) has confirmed that only three of the ten hospitals in the area are operating “at minimal capacity”.
“Facilities are facing dire shortages of fuel, blood, trauma care and medicine, and women are giving birth under heavy bombardment,” Unrwa said in its daily assessment report from Gaza.