By Baba Umar
About a dozen ex-US officials who recently quit their jobs in the government to protest America’s unbridled support for Israel’s war on besieged Gaza have termed the policy of President Joe Biden’s administration “a failure and a threat to US national security” while exhorting their former colleagues to use their positions and not to be mute in the face of “violence unfolding in Palestine.”
“Biden administration’s policy in Gaza is a failure and a threat to US national security. America’s diplomatic cover for, and continuous flow of arms to, Israel has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza,” a joint statement signed by the ex-US officials said on Tuesday.
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Do ‘not be complicit’
The former US administration officials said Washington is willfully violating multiple US laws and attempting to deny or distort facts, use loopholes, or manipulate processes “to ensure a continuous flow of lethal weapons to Israel.”
They said every credible and independent international human rights organisation has identified gross violations of human rights by Israeli military, dating back well before 2023, “that should compel ineligibility determinations under the Leahy Laws.”
Accusing Israel of arbitrarily obstructing US-funded humanitarian assistance, they demanded “suspension”of security assistance to Tel Aviv under Section 620I of the US Foreign Assistance Act.
Urging US government to use all available leverage to help end war on Gaza and to achieve the release of all hostages and prisoners, both in Gaza and Israel, the ex-officials said US must ensure immediate expansion of humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, and the reconstruction of that territory.
It is “a moral obligation given that the harm and destruction to-date has largely been dealt by American weapons.”
The statement urged US to immediately announce that the policy of the (sic) Washington will be to support self-determination for the Palestinian people and an end to Israeli military occupation and Zionist settlements in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
They former US administration and defence officials said that freedom of speech is under threat in America, “and we abjure political pressure on colleges and universities in particular that have led to a militarised police response to peaceful protests
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