For Immediate Release: March 12, 2024

Media Contact: Daryl G. Kimball, executive director, (202) 463-8270 x107

(Washington, D.C.)—Today the Arms Control Association joined a prestigious group of organizations specializing in humanitarian assistance and international security on a letter to President Joe Biden "to express our deep concern regarding continued U.S. security assistance to Israel despite Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid, an apparent violation of U.S. law.”

The letter, endorsed by two dozen organizations, notes that Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act “… prohibits the United States from providing security assistance or arms sales to any country when the President is made aware that the government ‘prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.’”

In the letter, the organizations call on President Biden to "urgently comply with U.S. law, end U.S. support for catastrophic human suffering in Gaza, and use your leverage to protect civilians and ensure the impartial provision of humanitarian assistance."

“As Israel threatens to attack Rafah, where more than one million civilians have sought refuge, it is imperative that President Biden fully exercises America's leverage to protect civilians before even more are killed or die from starvation and disease,” said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.

"The facts on the ground suggest that President Biden should follow the logic of U.S. law and his own administration’s conventional arms transfer policies by withholding U.S. military assistance for Israeli offensive military operations because, more likely than not, they may be used to commit, facilitate, or aggravate the risk of a serious violation of international human rights or humanitarian law, and because of Israeli actions that are impeding the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza,” he said.

The text of the letter is below.

For further analysis, see "Can Biden’s New Arms Transfer Policy Be More Than an Empty Promise?” by John Ramming Chappell in Arms Control Today, March 2024.

Letter to President Biden on Security Assistance to Israel, Restrictions On Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, and U.S. Law

March 12, 2024

Dear President Biden,

We write to express our deep concern regarding continued U.S. security assistance to Israel despite Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid, an apparent violation of U.S. law. We demand that you urgently comply with U.S. law and end U.S. support for catastrophic human suffering in Gaza.

On March 2, the United States began its first airdrops of humanitarian aid into Gaza – a risky, expensive, and ineffective method for assisting civilians that is widely considered an option of last resort. On March 7, your administration announced that it would build a floating pier along the Gaza coast to bring aid to the population. Both efforts are the latest implicit recognition of Israel's severe restrictions on humanitarian access amid extraordinary human suffering. Your administration has now publicly recognized what humanitarian organizations have reported for months: that the government of Israel is obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid to starving Palestinians.

More than 30,000 Palestinians – at least two-thirds of them women and children – have been killed in Gaza and over 70,000 wounded, with thousands more estimated to be buried under the rubble. Over 90 percent of people in Gaza are acutely food insecure, with a growing number of children dying of starvation and dehydration. Over 75 percent of Gaza’s population is already displaced, and the level of damage to shelter and infrastructure means people increasingly have nowhere safe to go nor reliable provisions if and when they move. As civilians face bombardment, disease, and starvation, lifesaving health care is increasingly inaccessible.

The United States is a leading donor of the humanitarian response in Gaza. Secretary Blinken has called on Israel to “maximize every possible means” to get aid to Gazans, noting that “the situation, as it stands, is simply unacceptable.” And you have rightly said you will accept “no more excuses” for continued obstacles to aid. But since October 7, the government of Israel has failed to facilitate the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid, including through additional border crossings into Gaza and northern Gaza in particular; blocked the entry of many humanitarian aid trucks; denied humanitarian access requests; enforced arbitrary customs restrictions on humanitarian goods; and attacked humanitarian workers and their facilities as well as civilians seeking aid. Longtime U.S. implementing partners around the world have come under attack in Gaza, and lifesaving U.S.-funded humanitarian aid has been blocked from entering Gaza. Just last week, hours after your State of the Union address, an Israeli airstrike on a housing complex hosting displaced people killed a humanitarian aid worker employed by a US-based NGO.

These restrictions are not isolated instances but the policy of the government of Israel: as Prime Minister Netanyahu stated clearly on October 18, “We will not allow humanitarian assistance in the form of food and medicines from our territory to the Gaza Strip.” While Israel has subsequently allowed some aid into Gaza, it remains far from sufficient – a fact that Netanyahu confirmed when he stated in January that Israel was only allowing a "minimum" amount of relief into Gaza. During your own State of the Union address, you implicitly acknowledged that Israel was using humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip. Human Rights Watch and Oxfam have determined that the Israeli government is committing a war crime by using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, the United States continues to provide Israel with unconditional arms transfers and other security assistance. This not only facilitates Israel’s harmful conduct, but also appears to violate Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act (22 U.S.C. § 2378–1), which prohibits the United States from providing security assistance or arms sales to any country when the President is made aware that the government “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.”

U.S. weapons, security assistance, and blanket political support have contributed to an unparalleled humanitarian crisis and possible war crimes in Gaza. We demand that you urgently comply with U.S. law, end U.S. support for catastrophic human suffering in Gaza, and use your leverage to protect civilians and ensure the impartial provision of humanitarian assistance.

Signed,

Airwars

American Friends Service Committee

Amnesty International USA

Anera

Arms Control Association

Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC)

Center for International Policy

Charity & Security Network

Demand Progress Education Fund

Foreign Policy for America

Friends Committee on National Legislation

Human Rights Watch

Humanity & Inclusion

MADRE

Middle East Democracy Center (MEDC)

MPower Change

Norwegian Refugee Council USA

Oxfam America

PAX

Peace Action

Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

Refugees International

U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action (USCPR Action)

Win Without War

Zomia Center

Tuesday, March 26, 2024
10:00 - 11:00 a.m., U.S. Eastern Time

Although all member states of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention have verifiably completed the destruction of the chemical weapons stockpiles as required by the treaty, the regime still faces compliance challenges. Ten years after Syria's massive declared chemical arsenal was removed from its territory and destroyed under international supervision, gaps and inconsistencies in its declaration remain unresolved and several incidents of chemical weapons use have been documented by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Meanwhile, credible allegations have arisen in the past several months that Russia has used riot control agents against Ukrainian infantry position, which would be a violation of the CWC.

A high-level group of panelists discussed these ongoing CWC compliance concerns.

Speakers included:

• Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, former Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will review on the OPCW’s investigations and findings regarding chemical weapons use in the Syrian Arab Republic, and approaches to addressing unresolved issues.
• Fadel Abdulghany, head of the Syrian Human Rights Network, will discuss ongoing concerns and impacts chemical weapons use on the Syrian people, and the role of civil society in documenting incidents of CWC noncompliance.
• Ambassador Susannah Gordon, Permanent Representative of New Zealand to the OPCW, will provide an update on new allegations that riot control agents are being used by Russian forces in the war in Ukraine in violation of the CWC, what it means in terms of challenges to the CW, and how CWC member states might respond.

The webinar was be moderated by CWC Coalition Project Coordinator Mina Rozei.

This discussion was on the record. The webinar was organized by the Arms Control Association and the Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition.

All members of the Arms Control Association are invited to vote for the Board of Directors online or by mail on the proposed slate of candidates for the 2024-2026 term. We have four current board members who have agreed to continue to serve if approved by the membership.

Please see below the biographies of this year's candidates and the ballot. Cast your vote by April 30, 2024. Please note that if you also vote by returning the ballot you have received by postal mail, your vote will only be counted once.

If you have any questions about this year's board election, please contact Kathy Crandall Robinson, Chief Operating Officer, at at [email protected] or 202-463-8270 ext 101.