The US Government Continues to
Provide Weapons to Israel
On July 31st, 2014, CNN reported that the Israeli government asked the United States government for additional bullets as it continues its assault in Gaza. As the report states, thus far, the Israeli invasion in Gaza has taken the lives of “more than 1,300 people in Gaza, most of them civilians.”
And yet, the United States government leaders “agreed to Israel’s request to resupply it with several types of ammunition, a U.S. defense official told CNN on condition of anonymity”. According to the report,
“Among the items being bought are 120mm mortar rounds and 40mm ammunition for grenade launchers, the official said. Those will come from a stockpile the United States keeps in Israel, which is worth more than $1 billion.”
This story brings up an important question when thinking about international conflict, just war theory, and invasions of territories. Namely, how much responsibility falls on those who supply the weapons to a state or entity, knowing that there has in the very recent past been numerous civilian killings by that said actor? In this case, there are calls–at least by citizens (and not so much by state leaders or international organizations) stating that Israel end its attacks in Gaza. And yet, the United States leadership continues to offer weapons, knowing that Israel has killed thousands of people, over 200 of which have been children. Despite arguments that suggest there is no responsibility other than the person(s) who carry out the attack (and even then, whether they intended to kill the civilians or not), knowingly providing weapons to a state or other actor who in the past weeks has killed scores of civilians places at least some responsibility and guilt on those giving the bullets.
And in the case of the US’ role in providing weapons to Israel, as Edith Garwood at Amnesty International states in a July 14th, 2014 article,
“The U.S., as the largest foreign supplier of weapons, munitions, police equipment and devices, as well as training and techniques to Israel, bears a particular responsibility [bold deemphasized] for the deployment of the weapons it provides.”
Now of course, the same level of responsibility exists with leaders and actors that are providing Hamas with rockets. This should not be overlooked. Crimes against civilians, are crimes against civilians, regardless of who is acting on whom. We need to continue to speak out against all such crimes.
In any conflict, the crime of killing innocents extends beyond who carried out the attacks, but also, who supplied the weapons knowing a history of such actions. These are questions that investigators, journalists, and human rights commissions must probe in order to fully reach international justice regarding war crimes. It is not enough to look at the actors, but also at who is supplying the ammunition to carry out such abuses. The United States, any any other country or actor providing weapons to a state or entity who is engaged in killing civilians must stop their material support to these actors immediately. This means ending the supply of weapons to those engaged in these horrific human rights abuses.
