Human Rights Groups Demand Biden Publish Report On Israel’s Use Of U.S. Weapons

A coalition of press freedom, civil liberties and human rights organizations sent a letter to the White House on Tuesday to call on the Biden administration to make public an upcoming report on whether foreign countries — including Israel — are usingU.S. military aid in ways that break international humanitarian laws.

For months, members of Congress have been demanding assurances that Israel, which receives U.S. military aid, has complied with international and U.S. law — which prohibits violence against civilians and efforts to block aid — in its war in Gaza. In response, President Joe Biden in February issued a memo known as NSM-20, which requires federal U.S. agencies to submit a report to Congress on whether countries that get U.S. military aid are in fact obeying the law.

The report’s initial deadline was May 8, thoughit is currently unclear if it will be ready to submit by Wednesday.

The Biden administration has not said explicitly if it will make the report publicly available.

But the letter’s signatories — including Amnesty International USA, Defending Rights & Dissent, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the National Press Photographers Association, the Radio Television Digital News Association and Reporters Without Borders — said that the “process established in NSM-20 suggests” that the report to Congress should be unclassified.

“The public and the press have an especially strong interest in understanding how the U.S. has assessed the assurances provided under NSM-20 by all countries that receive U.S. defense articles, and particularly those in areas of armed conflict,” read the letter.

“Your administration has pledged to ‘bring transparency and truth back to the government,’” the letter continued. “We urge