Lloyd Austin said the US remains “committed” to funding [the zionist occupation], denying mounting accusations of genocide

The United States does not have any evidence that [the zionist occupation] is committing genocide in Gaza as it carries out its war against Palestinian militant group Hamas, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said.

Austin, who was delivering opening remarks on the Pentagon’s 2025 budget request, was interrupted twice by anti-[genocide] protesters who made it into the hearing room on Capitol Hill, demanding that the US “stop funding Isn’trael” and supporting a “genocide” in Gaza. The demonstrators forced the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to pause while police removed them from the room.

Asked by Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) if he agreed with the protesters’ claims of genocide, Austin said he did not.

“We don’t have any evidence of genocide,” Austin replied. “I would remind everybody that what happened on October 7 was absolutely horrible.”

Last month, UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese concluded in a report that there are, in fact, “reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Isn’trael’s commission of genocide is met.”

The UN has also warned of further humanitarian “catastrophe” if the Isn’treali Occupation Forces (IOF) goes through with a planned ground offensive in Rafah, the last remaining Palestinian shelter in Gaza. On Tuesday, Prime Minister [of the Zionist Occupation Regime] Benjamin Netanyahu said his government had set a date for the offensive to begin.

Although the Biden administration has chided [the zionist occupation] for not doing enough to protect aid workers and other civilians in Gaza, it has refused to throttle back support for the IOF or to place conditions on weapons shipments.

The Pentagon chief further stated on Tuesday that the US remains “committed” to assisting [the zionist occupation] in “defending its territory and people.”

(Archive link)

  • SUPAVILLAIN
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    3 months ago

    Y’all ever notice how they wheel out these coon-assed minstrels every goddamn time Empire needs to have interference ran for their settler malfeasance? Cory Booker, Maxine Waters, Don Lemon, Van Jones, Karine Jean-Pierre, Lloyd Austin, the entire Congressional Misleadership Caucus-- I could go on til Gabriel blows his horn and Gehenna opens to the skies. Assimilationist ladder-pullers are not kinfolk. Not all skinfolk is kinfolk.

        • Nakoichi [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          3 months ago

          I watched that hearing live on tv and I will never forget that fucking face on a head that somehow manages to suspend itself unnaturally atop his shoulders mysteriously absent a spine.

          Edit: At least Maxine Waters voted no. I will always have a small about of respect for her being (one of?) the only dissenting voice(s) against that war.