WASHINGTON, 27 April — The National Lawyers Guild has published a report questioning the legality of US manufactured weapons “systematically and indiscriminately used against Palestinian civilians in blatant violations of US and international law.” 

The Lawyer’s Guild report comes on the heels of a fact-finding delegation of its attorneys and law students who traveled to Israel and the occupied territories earlier this year.

The report confirms the findings of numerous governments and organizations that believe the Israeli military and police have consistently used excessive force against the Palestinian civilian population and have indiscriminately attacked those populations as a form of collective punishment “using road and border closures, isolation of communities, demolition of homes and destruction of agricultural property.” 

Applying this to US law, the Lawyer’s Guild Report also determined that Israel is violating the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 and the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. The guild has called on President Bush 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 cited the disparate treatment of Palestinian citizens in Israel, and found systematic discrimination of these citizens similar to the apartheid policies of previous South African governments. 

“This is yet another objective, dispassionate account of the brutality of Israel’s attempt to repress the rebellion,” Hussein Ibish, Communications Director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) told Arab News. 

Ibish says what distinguishes this report “which was not in the reports by the UN Human Rights Committee, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the State Department’s Annual Report on Human Rights Violations in 2000 — to name a few — is that there is an evaluation of the legality of the use of these American weapons in the campaign to suppress the rebellion.  

“What they found is a major violation of international law, which we already know, but they also raised the issue that some of this, such as Israel’s use of US-made Apache helicopters to assassinate Palestinian political leaders, or the use of other heavy equipment against Palestinian demonstrators, is in violation of US law,” said Ibish. 

The Lawyer’s Guild was formed in 1930 an alternative to the American Bar Association “which would not allow black lawyers to join,” Steven Goldberg, an attorney in a Portland, Oregon law firm and Chairperson to the National Lawyer’s Guild International Committee, told Arab News. 

Goldberg admitted there was some conflict within the guild over publishing the report, “because of the large number of Jewish members in the guild, and the traditional conflict Jews have on this issue. But, despite this, we have criticized the present politics of the Israeli government.” 

Goldberg also questioned the lack of coverage by the US media of Israel’s use of force. “Our strategy is the fundamental importance of this report to get information out that is not widely reported by the US media, and to get as many groups as possible to talk about this report, including members of Congress,” said Goldberg. 

“There is also a sense that complacency had overcome some groups in the US after the Oslo accords, as there is not a great deal of analysis that has happened after Oslo,” said Goldberg. “The Al Aqsa Intifada brought this into the focus.”

Goldberg said that what the guild found “in terms of international law violations was nothing new, as these have even been reported by Israel groups. What is unique about the report is that it has linked it to the use of US weapons by the Israel government in violation of US laws.” 

“We believe the president and Congress has a responsibility to hold hearings on this issue, and ultimately to withhold aid until these violations have been stopped. It must assure that US manufactured weapons not be used in violation of US law,” said Goldberg

An electron version of the Guild’s report is available tat the guild’s website at http://www.nlg.org.