“Overwhelming” evidence cited that Israeli forces have committed grave human rights crimes against Palestinians under his leadership

July 19, 2024, New York – Today, in advance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington next week, the Center for Constitutional Rights urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) to open a federal criminal investigation into him for his responsibility for genocide, war crimes, and torture. In a 23-page, detailed letter to the DOJ’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP), the organization says there is “overwhelming evidence” that, under Netanyahu, Israeli forces have committed these crimes against Palestinians during the nearly 10-month assault on Gaza. 

These are the most serious human rights violations in the U.S. criminal code, and the HRSP is statutorily mandated – and urgently needed – to investigate them to protect Palestinians from ongoing crimes and break the cycle of impunity that Israeli officials have enjoyed, the letter says. It also points out that other senior Israeli officials also responsible for genocide, war crimes, and torture have traveled to the United States and that, given that more than 20,000 U.S. citizens serve in the Israeli military, there is a high likelihood that some have helped to carry out these crimes. The group calls for the establishment of a War Crimes Accountability Team – Gaza, similar to the one constituted to investigate and support accountability efforts for violations in Ukraine, as well as the convening of an inter-agency effort to identify the number of U.S. citizens that have actively served in the Israeli armed forces since October 7, 2023 (including active-duty U.S. citizens) and the impact of torture, war crimes, and other atrocities in Gaza on U.S. citizens since October 7, 2023.

“Netanyahu has killed more than 14,000 precious Palestinian children with U.S. weapons and support and is starving all of Gaza – and now sycophants in the White House and Congress are rolling out the red carpet for him,” said Maria LaHood, Deputy Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “DOJ’s Human Rights and Special Prosecution Section must exercise its mandate to investigate Netanyahu and hold him to account for his heinous crimes, just as it would an international criminal from any other country.” 

Since October 8, 2023, Israeli forces have killed an estimated 38,650 people in Gaza, including approximately 14,000 children, injured nearly 90,000, forcibly displaced two million, and brought the entire population to the brink of famine.

The Center for Constitutional Rights represents Palestinians, Palestinian human rights organizations, and Palestinian Americans who sued President Biden, Secretary Blinken, and Secretary Austin for their complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. In January, after an evidentiary hearing featuring both expert and witness testimony, a federal judge stated that Israel’s conduct “plausibly” constitutes genocide. This echoed the historic ruling by the International Court of Justice, which ordered Israel to do all in its power to prevent genocide and later, in May, ordered Israel to halt its invasion of Rafah. 

Karim Khan, the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court – where Center for Constitutional Rights attorneys represent Palestinian victims in the investigation – is currently seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. “Israel,” Khan wrote, “has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.”

The letter to DOJ details numerous expressions of genocidal intent by Netanyahu himself, including his invocations of the biblical story in which God commands the extermination of the Amalekite people, as well as the genocidal acts of killing, seriously harming and creating conditions of life denying basic necessities for life to Palestinians. The letter also details evidence of torture and other war crimes committed by Israeli forces under the direction of Netanyahu. Human rights groups have, for example, documented numerous cases in which Palestinians in Israeli custody endured physical and sexual abuse. In addition, the Israeli military has targeted and destroyed apartment buildings, hospitals, houses of worship, ambulance convoys, schools, shelters, and refugee camps, and forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, which is 90 percent of the total population. There is also ample evidence that Israel has used starvation as a weapon, plunging Gaza into a famine that has killed many children and will likely result in thousands more dead.

Netanyahu’s visit comes in the wake of one of the deadliest weeks for Palestinians in Gaza in recent months and amid widespread calls by grassroots groups to arrest him during his upcoming visit rather than give him a platform. 

The submission is available here.