The State Department on Thursday refused to list examples of how Israel has used “excessive” force against Palestinians, just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected State’s argument that Israel’s actions have crossed the line.
On Wednesday, State spokesman John Kirby said the Obama administration has seen “reports of what many would consider excessive use of force.”
That led Netanyahu to argue that “fair-minded observers” should see that “force is justified” in the face of knife and ax attacks by Palestinians against Israelis.
Kirby didn’t name any examples of how Israel might be using force against Palestinians excessively Wednesday when he made the claim, and refused against on Thursday when he was asked.
“I mean, Israelis shooting Palestinians armed with knives, is that something somebody is seeing as excessive?” one reporter asked him.
“Yesterday we had this discussion, and I didn’t get into detail then, I’m not going to get into detail now,” Kirby replied.
Kirby also refused to say whether the Obama administration agrees with Netanyahu that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas needs to do more to stop encouraging attacks against Israelis. When asked if the U.S. agrees with Netanyahu, Kirby dodged and offered a general statement that the violence should stop.
“I think I would just reiterate what we said before, and we’ll continue to stress that the violence needs to stop,” he said. “There’s no excuse for the intentional killing of innocent people, for the use of terrorism as a tactic.”
Kirby did, however, seem to walk back a statement from Wednesday in which he appeared to say the U.S. has seen reports that Israeli security forces have used excessive force. When asked about this Wednesday, he said the U.S. is concerned about reports of violence against “civilians,” and when asked if that means the U.S. has seen reports involving Israeli security forces, he said, “we’ve seen reports.”
But on Thursday, Kirby on Thursday made it clear the U.S. has not yet made this formal charge.
“We have never accused Israeli security forces of excessive force with respect to these terrorist attacks,” he said.
