["The United States cannot turn its back on the atrocities,
including war crimes, enabled by U.S. policies, particularly its
decades long policy of shielding Israel from accountability."]
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NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD URGES BIDEN TO ALIGN US ISRAEL-PALESTINE
POLICY WITH INTERNATIONAL LAW  
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Brett Wilkins
May 3, 2021
Common Dreams
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_ "The United States cannot turn its back on the atrocities,
including war crimes, enabled by U.S. policies, particularly its
decades long policy of shielding Israel from accountability." _

An Israeli soldier points a rifle at a Palestinian man protesting
then-President Donald Trump's so-called Middle East peace plan in the
illegally occupied West Bank city of Hebron on February 28, 2020.,
Hazem Bader/AFP via Getty Images

 

Less than a week after Human Rights Watch published
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a scathing report accusing the Israeli government of the crimes
against humanity of apartheid and persecution for its treatment of
Palestinians, a leading U.S. legal advocacy group on Monday submitted
a memorandum to the Biden administration outlining the legal basis for
reversing Trump-era pro-Israel policies that violate human rights and
international law. 

The memo
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(pdf), authored by the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) International
Committee's Palestine Subcommittee, notes that after four years of
"bullish and detrimental" U.S. policy on Palestine and Israel under
the Trump administration, "the health, human rights, and humanitarian
situation for Palestinians—both in Palestine and in the refugee
camps of surrounding countries—is dire."

"From withdrawing vital funding from humanitarian organizations that
provide basic needs to Palestinian refugees and moving the U.S.
Embassy to Jerusalem, to targeting human rights advocates in the
United States, the Trump administration enacted a number of policies
that have harmed both Palestinians and U.S. citizens, and continue to
do so today," the memo states.

"Further, in enacting the aforementioned policies, the Trump
administration ignored many of the international commitments that the
United States is charged to abide by, including core principles of
international law," it continues. "The Biden administration must not
only correct course; it needs to go beyond Obama-era policies to
affirm and demonstrate its commitment to civil and human rights and
international law, both at home and abroad."

 
The memo's authors urge the Biden administration to take steps
including, but not limited to: 

* Relocate the U.S. Embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv;
* Reverse the Trump administration's repudiation
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of a 1978 State Department legal opinion
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declaring Israel's settler colonies in the occupied West Bank to be
illegal; 
* Rescind the previous administration's rule
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requiring "Made in Israel" labeling on goods produces in the unlawful
settlements, as well as former President Donald Trump's formal
recognition
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of Israel's illegal annexation of Syria's Golan Heights; 
* Reinstate aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
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* Call for an immediate end to Israel's 15-year closure and blockade
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of Gaza; 
* Refrain from further interference in International Criminal Court
proceedings and consider ratifying the Rome Statute; 
* Reverse Trump's order falsely conflating
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criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism; and 
* Affirm that boycotts for human rights such as the Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement "are a form of highly
protected speech under the U.S. Constitution."

"The policy recommendations made herein represent the minimum required
to reverse the damage done by the Trump administration and begin to
bring United States policy and practice on Palestine and Israel in
line with international law," the memo states. "The United States
cannot turn its back on the atrocities, including war crimes, enabled
by U.S. policies, particularly its decadeslong policy of shielding
Israel from accountability."

"Thus, the United States has a legal and moral responsibility to act
expeditiously," the memo adds. "It has long been obvious to anyone
paying attention that U.S. policy on Palestine and Israel does not
match its rhetoric nor the ideals that it claims to stand
for—freedom, human rights, and democracy. The Biden administration
has an opportunity and an obligation to correct course and to pursue
policies grounded in integrity, human rights, equality, and respect
for the rule of law."

Memo co-author Huwaida Arraf, a human rights attorney and co-chair of
the NLG International Palestine Subcommittee, said in a statement that
"rescinding Trump's recognition of Israel's annexations should have
been done on day one of the Biden administration, and although
[President Joe] Biden has stated that he would not relocate the U.S.
Embassy from Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv, this position cannot be
reconciled with a stated intent to 'respect the rule of law.'" 

As the restoration
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of $235 million in U.S. aid to Palestinians earlier this month
demonstrated, the Biden administration is expected to place more
emphasis on Palestinian human rights than its predecessor. However,
unconditional U.S. military aid
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Israel—currently about $3.8 billion per year—continues despite
human rights advocates accusing its government and military of crimes
including illegal occupation and settler colonization, apartheid
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ethnic cleansing
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and genocidal policies and actions.
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Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel
free to republish and share widely.
 

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