DAWN

On Dec 17, DAWN and Palestinian families sued the U.S. State Department for failing to enforce the Leahy Law, allowing U.S. military aid to Israeli units implicated in gross human rights violations. 🚨 Learn how your taxpayer dollars fuel abuse and what you can do. 📲 Read and share the infographic to demand accountability. Visit http://DAWNMENA.org for more. #LeahyLaw #HumanRights #DAWNmena #Accountability #JusticeMatters

Palestinian families are taking a historic stand, suing the U.S. State Department for failing to enforce the Leahy Law against Israeli forces committing human rights abuses. This lawsuit demands accountability. Watch DAWN's Sarah Leah Whitson, and support this fight for justice: https://lnkd.in/e_6yCNZG

What happens when the U.S. ignores its own laws on foreign aid? DAWN's executive director, Sarah Leah Whitson, and Ahmed Moor discuss a lawsuit by Palestinian families to enforce the Leahy Law and hold Israel accountable for decades of abuses with Ayman Mohyeldin. Watch here:

“For years, victims of the chemical attacks had to suffer in silence. With the sudden collapse of five decades of Assad family rule, they can speak freely for the first time.” writes Alex Martin Astley from Damascus, for DAWN’s Democracy in Exile. “Children and women in their hundreds, all of them choked to death,” Samir Bakhit told Astley, from the ruins of his eastern Ghouta neighborhood. “We want our children never to experience what we had to live through,” Anas Sagherjy said. Alex Martin Astley with more from survivors of Assad’s chemical attacks in Damascus: 

“Algeria's transnational repression reveals an emboldened authoritarianism with a clear message: There is no place on earth the regime cannot reach, no critic beyond its grasp,” amna guellali writes. “When dissent is effectively silenced domestically, these regimes inevitably turn their gaze outward, targeting exiled critics to ensure that none are left unscathed.” “For Algerian activists, journalists and human rights defenders, physical borders no longer offer any sanctuary,” Guellali says. More from Amna Guellali on Algeria’s transnational repression and “how authoritarian regimes are going global in their reach,” in DAWN’s Democracy in Exile:

DAWN Senior Advisor Charles Blaha, a former State Department official, and Palestinian-American writer and plaintiff Ahmed Moor explain our lawsuit against the State Department for violating the Leahy Law, which bans the funding of foreign military units that violate human rights. Watch the full Democracy Now! Productions segment with Charles Blaha and Ahmed Moor on our lawsuit challenging the U.S. State Department’s arbitrary and capricious failure to implement the Leahy Law prohibiting U.S. assistance to abusive Israeli security forces: https://lnkd.in/eh6-5MbX

"WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has carved out loopholes for Israel that give the close American ally a pass on U.S. law that restricts aid to foreign militaries over human rights abuses, a lawsuit from a group of Palestinians in Gaza and American relatives asserts Tuesday. "Former State Department officials and crafters of the 1997 Leahy law were among those advising and backing the lawsuit. The lawsuit details the barriers it accuses the State Department of creating on behalf of Israel to skirt enforcement and asks courts to intervene... "'It’s really a modest set of goals here: There’s a U.S. law. We’d like the federal government to adhere to U.S. law,' said Ahmed Moor, a Philadelphia-based Palestinian American who joined the lawsuit on behalf of cousins, uncles and aunts displaced and killed in the 14-month war." Associated Press reports on DAWN's lawsuit:

Palestinian families devastated by Israeli human rights violations in Gaza and the West Bank are suing the State Department today, with DAWN’s support, to enforce the Leahy Law and suspend U.S. military assistance to abusive Israeli security forces. Watch Sarah Leah Whitson, Charles Blaha, Raed J. and Josh Paul explain why we filed this historic lawsuit. Read more about the DAWN-supported lawsuit which documents how the State Department has created unique, insurmountable processes to evade Leahy Law requirement to sanction abusive Israeli units, despite overwhelming evidence of their human rights violations: https://lnkd.in/eJQCXApu

Palestinian Families Sue State Department to Suspend U.S. Military Assistance to Abusive Israeli Security Forces (Washington D.C., Dec. 17, 2024) - Palestinian families devastated by Israeli human rights violations in Gaza and the West Bank filed a federal lawsuit today under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) challenging the State Department’s arbitrary and capricious failure to implement the Leahy Law prohibiting U.S. assistance to abusive Israeli security forces. The lawsuit, supported by DAWN, documents how the State Department has created unique, insurmountable processes to evade the Leahy Law requirement to sanction abusive Israeli units, despite overwhelming evidence of their human rights violations. These violations include torture, prolonged detention without charge, forced disappearance, and flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, and security, such as genocide, indiscriminate and deliberate killings, and deprivation of items essential to survival, including food, water, fuel, and medicine. "This lawsuit demands one thing and one thing only: for the State Department to obey the law requiring a ban on assistance to abusive Israeli security forces," said Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN’s Executive Director. "For too long, the State Department has acted as if there’s an ‘Israel exemption' from the Leahy Law, despite the fact that Congress required it to apply the law to every country in the world. As a result, millions of Palestinians have suffered unimaginable, horrific abuses by Israeli forces using U.S. weapons." "My suffering and the unimaginable loss my family has endured would be significantly lessened if the U.S. stopped providing military assistance to Israeli units committing gross violations of human rights," said the lead plaintiff, Amal Gaza (using a pseudonym for her safety), a mathematics teacher in Gaza, who has endured seven forced displacements since October 2023, losing her home, belongings, and 20 family members to indiscriminate attacks by U.S.-armed Israeli security forces. “Despite years of credible reports of gross violations of human rights by Israeli defense and police units, including in the State Department’s own annual Human Rights Reports, as far as we are aware not a single unit has been denied U.S. aid under the Leahy Law,” said Tim Rieser, a former foreign policy adviser to Senator Leahy for 35 years who focused on the Leahy Law. “That is the record, despite Senator Leahy urging successive administrations to apply the law. He repeatedly made the point that the Leahy Law applies equally to all countries that receive U.S. aid. While the State Department claims that to be the case, the facts show otherwise.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/eJQCXApu

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