WASHINGTON, DC — The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the largest Arab-American membership organization, welcomes a report by the National Lawyers Guild confirming that U.S. manufactured weapons are systematically and indiscriminately used against Palestinian civilians in blatant violation of US and international law.
The Middle East Delegation Report is by a fact-finding delegation of ten attorneys and law students who traveled to Israel and the Occupied Territories earlier this year. The Report, which confirms the findings of numerous governments and organizations such as the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the State Departments Annual Report on Human Rights Violations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, found that Israeli military and police have consistently used excessive force against the Palestinian civilian population and have indiscriminately attacked that population as a form of collective punishment using road and border closures, isolation of communities, demolition of homes and destruction of agricultural property.
The Guilds Report carries these findings a step further in its analysis of U.S. law specifically the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 and the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and calls on the President and Congress to fulfill their responsibilities under these laws to terminate all foreign assistance to Israel so long as human rights violations persist. The delegation also investigated the disparate treatment of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, and found systematic discrimination of these citizens akin to the apartheid policies of previous South African governments.
Delegation members met with representatives of Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups and bar associations, representatives of the Palestinian Authority, representatives of the U.S. Embassy, and Palestinian victims and eyewitnesses in villages and hospitals. The Israeli Ministry of Defense refused the Delegations request for a meeting.
Click here for an electronic version of the Guild‘s report, which is available at the Guild‘s website .
A print version of the report is available by contacting the Guild‘s national office. For additional information, please contact: the
National Lawyers Guild:
Zaha Hassan,
Portland, Oregon:
503-697-6973, zaha@uswest.net
Kurt Berggren,
Ann Arbor, Michigan:
734-996-0722, kbergg@aol.com