Summary
- The US released a much shorter, pared-down 2024 Human
Rights Report.
- The report scales back criticism of Israel and allies.
- Omits details on Palestinian civilian suffering and
Gaza humanitarian crisis.
- Focuses war crimes mentioned mainly on Hamas and
Hezbollah.
The State Department released a 103-page report on Israel's "significant human rights issues" last year. There are only nine pages in the new report.
The congressionally required human rights
reports—which serve as a basis for U.S. aid and diplomacy decisions—have been
transformed into purely political documents designed to cover up atrocities by
the government's target nations and allies, with whom the Trump administration
has had a falling out.
The State Department published 200 sanitized
Israeli human rights report 2025 on Tuesday, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
As anticipated, these reports obfuscate the records of some of the greatest
human rights abusers in the world.
With 91 percent less pages than the previous
year, experts deemed the Israeli human rights report 2025 to be one of the most
heinous.
Significant information about violations reported by the UN and human rights organizations was included in earlier iterations of the report on Israel, including those from President Donald Trump's first term. However, these details were mostly left out of the most recent edition.
“The first Human Rights Report of Secretary Rubio’s tenure can be summarized in just a few more words than it appears to be written in: few truths, many half truths, and nothing like the truth,”
said Josh Paul, who spent more than 11 years as the director of congressional and public affairs at the State Department bureau that oversees arms transfers to foreign nations before resigning in 2023 over U.S. military assistance to Israel.
“Its coverage of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza appears to have been written by someone who has been blindfolded, earmuffed, had a sock stuffed in their mouth, and then censored.”
That is a watered-down version of an already cautious chronicle in last year’s report, which stated:
“NGOs and Palestinian journalists reported authorities restricted press coverage and limited certain forms of expression, particularly for Palestinians. These included restricting Palestinian journalists’ movement in Israel, as well as using violence, arrests, intimidation, imprisonment, and closure of media outlets on security grounds, according to the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms.”
The report released in 2024 also cited figures
from the Committee to Protect Journalists on the number of reporters and other
media workers killed.
The physical, psychological, and sexual mistreatment of Israeli hostages by Hamas is the main topic of Israeli human rights report 2025 on torture. "Shin Bet (the Israel Security Agency) and police used violent interrogation methods that it referred to as 'exceptional measures,' but the Ministry of Justice did not provide information regarding the frequency of interrogations or the specific interrogation methods used," the report states in reference to Israel's torture of Palestinian prisoners.
"Reports of systemic torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment of Palestinian detainees in prison facilities after October 7"
were mentioned in the report from the
previous year.
The yearly reports, which are legally mandated
to include "a full and complete report regarding the status of
internationally recognized human rights" in almost 200 nations and
territories worldwide, are formally known as "Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices."
According to the State Department, they are utilized "by the U.S. Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches as a resource for shaping policy and guiding decisions, informing diplomatic engagements, and determining the allocation of foreign aid and security sector assistance."
“The Human Rights Reports have been among the U.S. Government’s most-read documents,”
said Charles Blaha, a 32-year State Department official and now senior adviser to DAWN, a nonprofit organization that promotes democracy and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa.
“This year, the Israel, West Bank, and Gaza Reports’ significant omissions render them functionally useless for Congress and the public as nothing more than a pro-Israel document.”
How does the scaled-back report compare to previous years' documentation on Israel?
The 2024 report's section on Israel, the West
Bank, and Gaza is just eight pages and less than 1,500 words. In contrast, the
2023 report was 76 pages long with more than 22,000 words dedicated to covering
the same subjects.
This drastic reduction reflects a far less
comprehensive coverage of human rights issues. The report omits or
significantly downplays key issues previously documented, including extensive
descriptions of abuses by Israeli forces and Palestinian militant factions.
Whereas the 2023 report detailed widespread
civilian deaths, harm, and a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the 2024
version provides only brief mentions of Hamas and Hezbollah war crimes and
limited discussion of Israel's role.