Rubio silences remaining criticism of 'Israel' at State Department
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's proposed overhaul of the State Department aims to silence the remaining criticism of "Israel" by targeting the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greet each other in Jerusalem on Feb. 16, 2025 (Ohad Zwigenberg/AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has proposed a major overhaul of the State Department, targeting the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, which he claims has become a platform for “left-wing activists” pushing for an “arms embargo” on "Israel". According to The Intercept, He plans to rename, downsize, and relocate the bureau within the department.
Even "Israel’s" toughest critics in Congress haven’t called for a full arms embargo, focusing instead on blocking specific weapons linked to civilian harm. Advocates warn Rubio’s proposal signals an effort to silence one of the few remaining forums for raising such concerns within the State Department.
“This ‘anti-Israel’ stuff is so deeply incorrect,” said Charles Blaha, who served as director of the human rights bureau’s office of security and human rights from 2016 until his 2023 retirement told The Intercept. “The tendency in the Department is exactly the opposite. The Department is pro-"Israel" to the point of overlooking gross violations of human rights. The Department closes its eyes to it.”
The bureau's role in the partial arms embargo
The bureau played a key role in arguing for the suspension of US arms shipments to "Israel", including 2,000-pound bombs used in Gaza.
Days after the October 7 Al Aqsa Flood and "Israel's" bombardment of Palestinian civilians, longtime State Department staffer Josh Paul left his post in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs in protest of continued arms shipments to "Israel".
He was interviewed by The Intercept on Wednesday, stating that the bureau “certainly had a role in arguing for that suspension."
“These are tools of foreign policy, so it is absolutely appropriate, when a partner is acting in a way that is contrary to US interests, that is contrary to US and international law, that arms transfers should be suspended as a point of leverage,” he said.
The bureau is also known for its critical human rights reports and enforcement of laws restricting aid to abusive military units, and has faced backlash from Israeli leaders.
Drawing on sources like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the bureau was responsible for producing annual reports critical of "Israel", including the latest under the Biden administration, which cited “credible reports” of “arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings,” “enforced disappearance,” and “torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by government officials.”
NPR reported last week that the State Department plans to scale down those congressionally mandated human rights reports. Despite decades of precedent, the reports, which are meant to inform congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance, will no longer call governments out for such things as denying freedom of movement and peaceful assembly.
In December of 2024, Human Rights Watch released a report accusing "Israel" of committing "acts of genocide" in the Gaza Strip by targeting water infrastructure and cutting off supplies to civilians, urging the international community to impose targeted sanctions on the occupation regime.
Reorganzing the Bureau
The State Department announced it will rename the bureau as the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Religious Freedom and place it under a new coordinator, merging it with another bureau. While Josh Paul noted this change alone may not reduce its influence, he stressed it must be seen within a broader context.
“I think it’s really going to depend a lot on who is in that role, and of course, the broader intent of the secretary and the State Department,” he said.
Rubio, in a Substack post on Tuesday, explained why he was pursuing the reorganization.
“The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor became a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against ‘anti-woke’ leaders in nations such as Poland, Hungary, and Brazil, and to transform their hatred of Israel into concrete policies such as arms embargoes,” he said.
Blaha, the bureau’s former director, rejected the characterization that it served as a platform for “left-wing activists.” He emphasized that its role as a “sounding board” for human rights advocates was limited compared to the power of the US Embassy in al-Quds and the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, both of which pushed for “unqualified support” for "Israel".
“The human rights bureau is the place that activists most frequently interact with, with regards to Israel. The Israel desk doesn’t really want to have anything to do with that, in my experience” he said. “How is the State Department going to interact with civil society?”
The Leahy law
Blaha’s former office, responsible for vetting foreign security units under the Leahy law, was central to a Biden-era debate over cutting aid to specific Israeli units accused of abuses, rather than halting arms sales entirely.
The Leahy law refers to two statutory provisions prohibiting the US Government from using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights.
The office’s future is uncertain under Rubio’s proposed State Department overhaul, as it doesn’t appear on the new organizational chart. Although a special forum later recommended ending aid to several Israeli units during the Gaza war, Former US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken chose not to act on it.
Last year, reports indicating that Blinken might sanction a particular Israeli unit led to an outcry from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with Rubio saying at the time that it would “stigmatize the entire IDF and encourage Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian regime." Blinken never followed through.
In December, Palestinian families supported by the nonprofit Democracy for the Arab World Now sued the State Department to enforce the Leahy law regarding "Israel".
Blaha, advising the group at the time, said, “The department’s own reports say that Israeli units are committing gross violations of human rights, but the department has never found a single Israeli unit ineligible, and that is what the law requires.”
"[Israel] is the only country we're aware of that the [Leahy] law has been so consistently not applied to," says Tim Rieser, former senior foreign policy advisor to Senator Patrick Leahy, and drafter of the Leahy Law.
Advocates argue that even if Rubio succeeds in renaming and downsizing the human rights bureau, the State Department must still uphold the Leahy law, with Tim Rieser, a foreign policy advisor, stating, “the Leahy law is the law. The administration is required to enforce it. The State Department is the only logical agency to enforce the Leahy Law.”
