{PBJFlorida} AIUSA letter to Members of Congress concerning US supplied military aid to Israel

From the AI Country Specialist on Israel/Palestine…..

 

 

 

Greetings,

Amnesty International USA sent a letter to key members of Congress yesterday taking the strongest position yet by AI/AIUSA on U.S. supplied military aid to Israel.  The letter was spurred by the 'Trigger-happy Israeli army and police use reckless force in the West Bank' report published February 27, 2014. 

Copy of letter:  http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/LetterToCongresWeaponsTransferAIUSA06262014.pdf

In the past, AI has only asked that weapons transfers to Israel be suspended until there is accountability and safe guards put in place; AI is now asking, "... the U.S. government to suspend transfers of munitions, weapons, crowd control devices, and military training to Israel. Such a suspension of U.S. arms transfers to Israel must be maintained until Israel puts in place effective
mechanisms to ensure that these transfers will not be used to commit or facilitate violations under international humanitarian and human rights law."  In other words, all military aid to Israel should be suspended until appropriate safeguards are put in place and accountability for past violations implemented.

AI has documented specific US supplied weaponry, munitions, and equipment that have been directly linked to violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, so another significant sentence in the letter states, "F-16s, Hellfire missiles, U.S. government-issued Caterpillar bulldozers, Apache helicopters and other weapons, munitions and equipment have been directly linked to violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by Israeli forces. Knowing this, the U.S. government is both violating its own law and policy, as well as complicit in the commission of these human rights violations."

Please feel free to distribute this news.  I used the following tweet:

.@Amnesty to Congress: Suspend military aid to #Israel until there is human rights accountability.  http://bit.ly/IsraelArms @IsraelinUSA

This has been a collaborative effort between the IOTPA Co-Group, the MSP Co-Group and the MENA Advocacy Director, Sunjeev Bery, so any questions can be directed to any of these folks.

Regards,
Edie

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