U.S. Senator Leahy asks Obama Administration to Investigate Israeli and Egyptian Human Rights Violations
BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ten other Congresspeople expressed their concern for the gross human rights violations committed by Israel and Egypt in recent years. In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry dated February 17, Leahy cites examples of human rights violations like extrajudicial killings, unusual disappearances of people, and massacres.
This letter was made public just days after an Israeli solider was filmed killing an unarmed Palestinian at close range that was circulated widely in the Arab World and the U.S. Already, the Israeli government has reacted to this letter claiming that it should be directed toward “bloodthirsty terrorists who come to murder [us].” However, firing on protestors without punishment should not be acceptable.
Senator Leahy is urging an investigation because both Israel and Egypt receive significant military aid from the U.S. every year. Leahy is the Senator who is credited with amending the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to include a law stating that a country will not receive aid if “credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights” is found. This clause is referred to as Leahy’s Law, which is being practiced in this letter.
If the examples of human rights abuses cited by Leahy in the letter are found to be true then the tax payer should expect less aid to go to Israel and Egypt. Read the letter below.