WASHINGTON-
A former top U.S. official who until recently helped monitor human rights compliance by foreign militaries receiving U.S. military assistance said Wednesday that he repeatedly observed Israel receiving “special treatment” by U.S. officials when it came to to scrutinize allegations of Israeli military abuses against Palestinian civilians. .
The accusation comes as the Biden administration faces intense pressure over its ally’s treatment of Palestinian civilians during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. And it matters who said it because: Charles O. Blaha. Before leaving office in August, he was director of a State Department security and human rights office closely involved in helping ensure that foreign militaries receiving U.S. military aid follow U.S. and international humanitarian and human rights laws.
Blaha said his departure from the State Department after decades of service was not related to the security relationship between the United States and Israel. He is the second top state official involved in that relationship to say that when it comes to Israel, the United States is reluctant to enforce laws required of foreign militaries receiving American aid.
“In my experience, Israel receives special treatment that no other country receives,” Blaha said. “And in many cases undue deference is shown” to the views of Israeli officials when the United States asks questions about allegations of Israeli wrongdoing against the Palestinians, he added.
He spoke to reporters at an event where he and other members of a self-formed unofficial panel of former senior U.S. civilian and military officials released a report noting civilian deaths in specific airstrikes in Gaza. They said there was “compelling and credible” evidence that Israeli forces had acted illegally.
Blaha’s comments echoed those of another State Department official and panel member, Josh Paul. Paul resigned as director overseeing arms transfers to other countries’ militaries in October in protest of the United States’ rapid shipment of weapons to Israel amid its war in Gaza.
When asked about the pair’s allegations, a State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel, said “there is no double standard or special treatment.”
Israeli officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel consistently asserts that it follows all laws in using U.S. military aid, investigates allegations against its security forces, and holds violators accountable.
Israel is historically the largest recipient of U.S. military aid, and Biden on Wednesday signed legislation for an additional $26 billion in wartime assistance. But Biden has come under increasing pressure for that support as Palestinian deaths rise.
The last meeting between Israel and Hamas began on October 1. On September 7, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two Iranian-backed militant groups, carried out a cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel. Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that caused widespread devastation and killed more than 34,000 people, according to local health officials.
In the coming days, the administration says it will announce the official conclusions of its reviews of allegations of particularly serious human rights abuses committed by specific Israeli military units. Those units would be barred from receiving U.S. military aid if the U.S. review confirms those allegations.
Separately, the Biden administration is also expected to reveal by May 8 whether it has verified Israel’s assurances that the country is not using US military aid in a way that violates international or human rights law. Both Israel’s written assurance and US verification were required by a new presidential national security memorandum that Biden issued in February.
The February deal was negotiated between the Biden administration and members of his own Democratic Party, who had been pushing for the United States to begin conditioning military aid to Israel on improved treatment of Palestinian civilians.
The panel members released their report on Wednesday to urge the United States to examine specific attacks in Gaza that former officials argued should lead to the conclusion that Israel was wrong to confirm that it was complying with the laws. If that determination is made, the United States could then suspend military aid.
Wednesday’s unofficial report notes 17 specific attacks on apartments, refugee camps, private homes, journalists and aid workers for which former U.S. officials and independent experts allege there is no evidence of the type of military target present to justify the high number. of civilian deaths.
They include an October. 31 airstrike on an apartment building in Gaza that killed 106 civilians, including 54 children. Israeli officials offered no reason for the attack, and a Human Rights Watch investigation found no evidence of a military target there, the officials said. Israel has said in many of the cases that it is investigating.