Op-ed on our meeting with A.G. Rob McKenna -- by Bert Sacks
At noon on June 4th, our Washington State Attorney General’s office sent an urgent email to the Israeli NW Consul General asking for help: “We would like advice about how to counter certain arguments, most prominently, the accusation that Israel has blocked the entry of humanitarian supplies into Gaza.”[1]
Two hours before this, I had asked that question of our Attorney General Rob McKenna during a call-in radio show. Since even the Israeli government admits that it does restrict humanitarian supplies into Gaza, my actual question was: Does our Attorney General believe it is legal for Israel to do this?[2]
This issue began when Rob McKenna signed an unfortunate and ill-informed letter with nine other Attorneys General. The letter begins “The undersigned Attorneys General write to convey our strong support [for all of] the State of Israel’s actions in Gaza.” (The forty other AGs chose not to sign on.)[3]
On July 15th, I joined 13 other critics of his letter to meet with Rob McKenna. Despite the 60 pages of material provided by the Israeli Consulate to his office, our AG did not offer an answer to my question.
Here is the evidence I supplied to Attorney General McKenna:
- a statement from Dov Weissglas, the official head of the Israeli team responding to Hamas' election victory in 2006. He said there will be an embargo and made a joke that Israel will put Gazans on a diet, saying that they will "get a lot thinner."[4]
- data the Israeli Consulate sent to the AG which (inadvertently) showed that humanitarian shipments to Gaza during the months of the ceasefire -- which Hamas abided by, but Israel did not – were restricted by Israel to 20% of normal.[5]
- a statement by the former head of the Israeli Mossad intelligence service: “If Israel’s goal were to remove the threat of rockets from the residents of southern Israel, opening the border crossings would have ensured quiet for a generation.”[6]
- Barack Obama’s statement that “if the people of Gaza can’t even get clean water at this point, if the border closures are so tight that it is impossible for reconstruction and humanitarian efforts to take place, then [it’s not a recipe for] peace.”[7]
- a letter from ten international lawyers and legal scholars confirming: "This siege [of Gaza] -- an act of war under customary international law -- violates Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention as a form of collective punishment."[8]
- a New England Journal of Medicine report that studied the results of a similar embargo on child mortality: When scaled to Gaza, the data suggest ten Palestinian children die every day in Gaza as a result of water-borne and opportunistic diseases due to their malnourished condition.[9]
What does our Attorney General not understand?
Legally, this is a “no-brainer.” What basis is there to believe that denying civilians including children any amount of food is legal – let alone 80% of what is considered essential?
Rob McKenna has egg on his face.
When confronted with a serious, legitimate issue over Israel’s actions, he looked for an answer only to the Israeli consulate. In effect, he acted as an agent for a foreign government.
Rob McKenna’s office wrote me that he did “not know if [denial of food] was illegal,” but the Israelis “led him to think” it wasn’t. If he asked only Hamas if their rockets were legal – and then accepted what they led him to believe – what would we think?[10]
And true, we all heard, “What how would we act if rockets fell on us? But did anyone ever hear, “What would we do if we were denied 80% of our food, medicine, fuel and water?
I have proposed to his office that the best way out of this dilemma is to make a clear, honest statement that he was ill informed about Israel’s actions in Gaza. He does not need to withdraw his legal opinion that sending rockets into civilian areas was illegal. But – since he’s publicly weighed into this conflict – he needs to decide whether it is legal to deny civilians including children basic humanitarian aid.
I hope this opinion piece will encourage Mr. McKenna to do just that.
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[1] Email document obtained by FOIA request of the AG’s office: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfjj4rpq_190ch98xqhn
[2] See transcript of KUOW “Weekday” radio interview: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfjj4rpq_179dx4n62c4
[3] letter to Hillary Clinton: http://www.cpjnews.com/State%20Attorney%20General%20Letter%20March%202009.pdf
[4] See article in Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz by Gideon Levy: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfjj4rpq_164hj5p5vzf
[5] Chart provided to the AG by the Israeli Consul from the IDF: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfjj4rpq_206c4g42khm
[6] See article from The Guardian (UK) quoting the Israeli press: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfjj4rpq_208cj46frhm
[7] See Press Release from the White House website: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfjj4rpq_211fsb9k9gn
[8] See letter from international lawyers and scholars: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfjj4rpq_197gsw569cf
[9] See New England Journal of Medicine survey: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfjj4rpq_212hrcjcwcc
[10] Letter from Chief of Staff Mike Bigelow to Bert Sacks: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfjj4rpq_191c8gdrmgw
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