How the US shields Israel from its own laws

When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Western world leaders took no time to condemn the act. Since then, the US, UK and EU, as well as countries including Australia, Canada and Japan, have imposed more than 16,500 sanctions on Russia.

Meanwhile, on 7 October 2023, Hamas launched a surprise terrorist attack on Israel resulting in the deaths of 1,139 Israelis and foreign nationals. On the same day, 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken captive in the Gaza Strip.

In response, Israel launched one of the deadliest and most destructive bombing campaigns in modern history, before commencing a large-scale ground invasion of Gaza. This attack has, to date, killed more than 35,000 Palestinians and injured 72,889. 

Israel's tightened blockade has cut off necessities, and its attacks on infrastructure have led to a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, including the collapse of the healthcare system and an impending famine. 

Nearly all of the strip's 2.3 million Palestinians have been internally displaced. By early 2024, Israeli forces had damaged or destroyed more than half of Gaza's houses, at least a third of its tree cover and farmland, and most of its schools and universities.

Yet Israel has yet to face any major sanctions.

To put things into context, during the first Nakba in 1948 — the mass displacement of Palestinians by the creation of a new state of Israel — 13,000 Palestinians died over three years. Since October 2023, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

So, how is Israel getting away with it? The answer is the US, particularly its State Department, which is working to protect Israel from sanctions or any other punitive action that relate to their obvious human rights violations.

The law in place and the bias in practice 

In an investigation conducted throughout the last few years, the English newspaper The Guardian was able to obtain information about sensitive internal deliberations, as well as documents, from inside the US State Department. 

The information establishes how special mechanisms have been used to shield Israel from US human rights laws. At the same time, other military units that receive US support, such as those in Ukraine, have reportedly been privately sanctioned and faced consequences for violating human rights.

Over a dozen incidents of alleged gross human rights violations by Israeli security forces since 2020 have been reviewed in secret by top US officials. Yet, they have gone to great lengths to maintain those accused units' access to US weapons, which former US officials claim has contributed to Israel's perception of impunity in its Gaza war, according to The Guardian. 

The US has employed unique procedures to protect Israel from the repercussions of human rights laws, particularly the Leahy law, which was designed to prevent US complicity in foreign human rights abuses. 

The Leahy law has not been consistently applied to Israel. High-level reviews and special arrangements have been made to circumvent the law's intent. 

"Even though there are numerous reports and allegations of gross violations of human rights, the Leahy law is somehow not affecting Israel," said Stephanie Kirchgaessner, the deputy head of investigations for Guardian US, in a recent discussion on an Al Jazeera show titled The Bottom Line. 

Kirchgaessner believes "There are special policies and mechanisms in place that are deep in the procedure of the State Department that give Israel a way out, and these do not exist for any other US ally". 

The Guardian, in their investigation, got access to internal US State Department documents that made accusations of human rights violations by the Israeli forces. The accusations were reviewed under a little-known process established by the State Department in 2020, known as the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum (ILVF), in which representatives from relevant State Department bureaus examine reports of alleged human rights violations by Israeli forces. 

A complete consensus requirement for terrorist reviews, and a 90-day response window for Israel are included in these policies, leading to significant delays. 

According to obtained documents, the US State Department had found five units of the Israeli security forces responsible for gross violations of human rights in incidents that occurred in the West Bank before the current Gaza war. These units, mostly from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), include at least one police unit. 

Despite the findings, no sanctions have been imposed on these units. Four of them took effective remedial action, but an ultra-orthodox military unit called Netzah Yehuda had not addressed the violations. 

In 2021, an agreement titled "Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the State of Israel Concerning Assistance to Security Forces" was signed between Israel and the US, which formalised changes in the Leahy law and included a statement about how Israel has a "robust, independent and effective legal system, including its military justice system". This language has raised concerns because it inaccurately suggests that the Leahy Law shouldn't be applied to Israel. 

Critics have long said the Israeli military justice system lacks accountability, and Israeli human rights groups like B'Tselem have highlighted its shortcomings. "The military law enforcement system is used by Israel as a whitewash mechanism whose purpose is to block any criticism of Israel's and the army's policies in the territories. 

The percentage of convictions of soldiers is close to zero, even for the most serious violations," B'Tselem spokesperson Dror Sadot told The Guardian.

The Leahy law has been a point of contention in US-Israel relations. It was first introduced in 1997 as part of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act. In 2011, Congress revised the law substantially, seeking to enhance its implementation. 

Senator Patrick Leahy has consistently raised concerns about the implementation of the laws, particularly about the incidents that involved the killing of Palestinians by Israeli security forces.

Despite frequent letters from Leahy to secretaries of state, no Israeli unit has faced sanctions under the Leahy law.

Stephen Rickard, Distinguished Fellow in the Human Rights Institute at Georgetown Law, told Al Jazeera, "This law has been applied in scores of countries thousands of times, but so far we are aware, in no case has the State Department ever been willing to apply it to Israel, where human rights communities were pretty clear that there is credible information that gross human rights violations had occurred."