https://arab.news/v7u99
The Arab American Civil Rights League last week announced it will seek to hold the Israeli government accountable for alleged war crimes in southern Lebanon by filing a federal class action lawsuit against the US government and American businesses that violate the Leahy Act.
It is a brilliant move that should have been made sooner.
The Leahy Act, or Leahy Law, was approved by US Congress in 1997 and codified in the Foreign Assistance Act in 2007. The laws are specific and create a foundation for legal action to prevent or punish war crimes.
The act is founded on fundamental US human rights statutes that prohibit the state and defense departments from providing military assistance in terms of funding or armaments, equipment, or training to foreign security force units if there is credible information that these units have committed a “gross violation of human rights.”
The Arab American Civil Rights League is targeting violations by the Israeli government, which in March began bombing civilian villages and cities in Lebanon. Many members of the human rights group are Lebanese Americans from Bint JBeil, a village near the Israel-Lebanon border that has been extensively damaged in Israeli attacks.
Israel’s military is armed and funded by the US to the tune of more than $3.5 billion each year, plus gratuitous grants awarded to strengthen the voter appeal of many American politicians who turn a blind eye to human rights violations when these involve nations they favor.
Israel is one of those nations that continues to commit war crimes, including the destruction of civilian property and the killing of innocent, noncombatant civilians. It is also one of the few nations that most members of the US Congress and government protect by excusing its actions.
In the past four years, for example, Israel has killed nine Americans using weapons, funding, and training provided by the US. Instead of holding Israel’s government to account, politics has stepped in and those responsible have escaped accountability for their actions.
When a military kills a defenseless civilian, it is nothing less than a prosecutable war crime.
Since 1948, Israel’s military has targeted and murdered non-Jewish civilians in an attempt to ethnically/religiously cleanse “their state” of non-Jews, Christians, and Muslims. More than 400 villages were destroyed during the 1948 war started by Israel but blurred by Israeli propagandists through clever propaganda and weaponized communications.
In fact, in each of its military attacks against non-Jews over the decades, Israel has committed war crimes, not only destroying civilian homes but also killing civilians.
Israel fabricated the term “extrajudicial killing” in an attempt to portray immoral conduct in a faux moral manner. The term was first used by Israel to justify the killing of critics without proving the guilt of the target.
War crimes can be pinpointed with evidence.
Ray Hanania
In recent years, the world has seen Israel continue these policies with impunity, a lack of accountability and, worse, the intentional apathy of the US.
Israel committed war crimes with America’s support by razing Gaza, destroying homes, businesses, churches, mosques, schools, and farms, which are all protected as a part of protected civilian life.
Amid the widespread destruction, tens of thousands of civilians, including many women and children, were killed by Israeli soldiers who had been armed and funded by the US.
Now, Israel is doing that in Lebanon.
Members of the US Congress can close their eyes to these Israeli war crimes and the US can pretend they do not occur. But they cannot turn their back on the rule of law, the foundation of America’s Constitution and civilian life.
The laws are the weapons that can punish Israel’s war crimes, and the Leahy Act clearly defines how those legal rulings apply to the murder of civilians and the destruction of civilian structures such as homes, schools, businesses, mosques, and churches.
Legal action needs to be taken if a government refuses to enforce the laws.
The Arab American Civil Rights League is taking that action. And every Arab American and Muslim organization should be inundating the American judicial system at every level and in every jurisdiction with lawsuits targeting Israel’s war crimes. It will not be easy, especially in a nation that has compromised its legal and moral ethics to protect entities such as Israel’s current government.
But the evidence of war crimes is abundant, with Israeli soldiers videotaped boasting that they were told by their commanders to destroy civilian structures and target civilians.
The Leahy Act is designed to stop US assistance from going to foreign security force units credibly accused of gross human rights violations. In practice, it has been used many times to suspend training, equipment, and funding to individual units around the world. It has worked with foreign jurisdictions in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and even Mexico.
Why not Israel, a state protected from the fundamentals of human rights laws? It would not be an anti-Israel legal attack since the act is structured in a way to allow the targeting of individual military units rather than whole governments.
War crimes can be pinpointed with evidence in a specific and powerful way.
The lawsuit would have to be fought by experienced lawyers, but their filing would raise public awareness of what Israel’s government is doing.
• Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com.
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