US panel on religious freedom mum on Israel’s bombing of Gaza; seeks congressional hearing to put India on Red List

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, January 5

The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) lent itself to claims of partisanship when it did not mention Israel even once in its reaction to the US State Department releasing a list of countries that are in its Red List or Countries of Particular Concern.

“Unsurprising but kind of wild that Israel doesn’t even appear as a country on the USCIRF website,” noted writer Dean Dettloff in an X post.

The US State Department also eschewed any mention of Israel while designating governments (and non-state actors) that “harass, threaten, jail and kill individuals for exercising their freedom of religion or belief”.

“I assume this means you’ve designated the Israeli government since they kill, harass, threaten and jail Palestinians,” said another X user.

The day began in Washington on Thursday with the US State Department releasing a list of countries (and non-state actors) it had indicted, based on a report by the USCIRF, as egregious violators of human rights. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said 11 countries were designated as CPC “for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom”. In addition, five countries were placed on a Special Watch List.

Blinken’s overlooking of the USCIRF’s recommendations to place India (as well as Nigeria) on the CPC list elicited a series of six angry tweets posted – for added impact — jointly by its Chair Abraham Cooper and Vice Chair Fred Davie. One sought a congressional hearing into the US State Department again failing to designate India and Nigeria as CPCs. Another recalled how USCIRF officials met State Department officials “on many occasions to sound the alarm about these countries”.

But the avalanche of tweets from USCIRF made no mention of Israel in the tweets. The tweets also did not mention whether they had ever met State Department officials to express their concern over the brutal and carpet bombing of Gaza which will enter its third month on Sunday. There has been no reply to an e-mail sent to the USCIRF asking whether Israel’s complete omission from its tweets and report was an oversight. 

However, the USCIRF hauled Belorussia over the coals for demolishing a church and Nicaragua for imprisoning priests. But of Israel there was no mention.