How Blinken lied to the Congress about Israel’s Gaza aid blockade

America’s top diplomat has reportedly given wrong information to US lawmakers on Tel Aviv’s obstruction of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where at least 2 million Palestinians are entrapped facing Israel’s relentless bombing.

During a May hearing, Antony Blinken suggested that Israel is not “prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance” to Palestinians.

Blinken made this statement despite the fact that the two top US agencies, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State department’s refugees bureau, had previously informed both the secretary of state and top diplomats about Israel’s deliberate blockade of aid into Palestinian territory.

USAID reported in its memo that Israel’s “arbitrary denial, restriction, and impediments of US humanitarian assistance” created conditions for “one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the world.”

The American law bans Washington from delivering weapons to any countries, including Israel, which has repeatedly blocked the transfer of the US-backed humanitarian aid. Yet the US continues to be the biggest arms supplier of Israel despite Tel Aviv’s blatant violation of both American and international law.

Calls for resignation

After separate memos from the two agencies, which showed Blinken’s camouflage of Israeli war crimes, were leaked to the press, some have called out his resignation due to his violation of the US law as well as humanitarian law.

“Antony Blinken lied to Congress even though he knew Israel was deliberately starving Gaza - all to keep arming the genocide. We demand that @SecBlinken resign and that @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris stop illegally arming Israel NOW!” wrote Jill Stein, an American Jew, who is the Green Party's presidential nominee in the upcoming US election, on X.

CAIR National, the largest Muslim civil rights organisation in the US, also demanded the resignation of Blinken. “The American people deserve leaders who tell the truth. It's time to hold the Biden administration accountable for it's ongoing complicity in the Israeli genocide in Gaza,” declared the organisation on X.

Interestingly, Blinken faces resignation calls from not only pro-Palestinian American groups but also Republicans, a long-time ally of Israel, who accuse the top diplomat of mismanaging US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Republicans previously proposed to impeach Blinken for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Not the first time

Blinken’s concealment of ground facts in Gaza and his unconditional advocacy of Israel is not a new thing. Last month, Blinken rescued the Israeli army’s notorious Netzah Yehuda battalion dominated by Hilltop Youth, a radical right-wing settler movement, from possible American sanctions.

A State Department panel recommended imposing sanctions on the battalion, which has a history of serious human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied regions after a long investigation against Netzah Yehuda activities.

But Blinken, after holding several talks with Israeli officials, decided to not impose sanctions on the military unit saying Tel Aviv has reformed the battalion. However, an extensive CNN investigation showed that the former commanders of the battalion received not punishment but promotions in exchange of their documented rights violations.

A 1997 US legislation known as the Leahy law bans military assistance to foreign states responsible for “gross violations of human rights”.

Since October 7, Blinken visited Israel many times to broker a so-called hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. So far, he has failed to deliver on the promise of pausing Israeli attacks on Gaza.

In mid-August, he was in Israel again with an elusive promise of a deal. While there was no real sign that the Benjamin Netanyahu government was willing to accept a ceasefire agreement, Blinken said that Israel “agreed” to a deal, which again proved to be a false claim.

Last week, as senior US officials conceded that the Gaza ceasefire deal is “out of reach” for the Biden administration, many wondered whether Blinken was buying time for Israel and helping them to continue its barbaric attacks on Palestinians.

Blinken was in Jerusalem right after the October 7 attacks standing shoulder to shoulder with Netanyahu for whom the International Criminal Court might issue arrest warrants soon for committing war crimes against Palestinians.

During his controversial remarks, Blinken said that he was in Israel “not only as the United States Secretary of State but also as a Jew”, promising full support to Netanyahu on his war against Gaza, which many see carries a “genocidal” intent.