Israel’s Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, has decided not to open a criminal investigation into alleged Israeli involvement in crimes against humanity and genocide during Guatemala’s civil war.Gali Baharav-Miara – who in recent years has provided legal backing for policies pursued by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and by Israeli security forces in Gaza, the West Bank, and in their treatment of Palestinian detainees – rejected an appeal against an earlier decision by state prosecutor Amit Aisman not to open a criminal investigation into a complaint we filed in 2019.The complaint followed extensive archival research in Guatemala, the United States, and Israel, documenting the scale of Israeli involvement in the conflict. Official cables collected during that research indicate that crimes against humanity and acts of genocide were carried out using Israeli military knowledge, equipment, and services. Among the findings: in 1974, Guatemala signed its first agreement to receive military assistance from Israel, and at the height of the violence, between 1978 and 1985, all Guatemalan army units were equipped with Israeli-made Galil rifles.Because the military assistance was documented in official cables, the attorney general did not dispute its existence. Instead, she grounded her decision in other considerations: “The absence of evidence indicating awareness – let alone intent – that Israeli military exports were facilitating genocide; the passage of time and its impact on the feasibility of an effective investigation; the fact that the acts, if committed, were carried out in an official capacity involving legitimate diplomatic considerations; and the advanced age of those involved.”However, as detailed in the complaint, the claim of lack of awareness appears to contradict extensive documentary evidence, including official cables suggesting that Israeli officials were well aware, in real time, of the severity of the crimes carried out with the assistance they provided. Moreover, arguments related to the age of suspects or the diplomatic context of their actions are not generally recognised under Israeli or international law as grounds for immunity from investigation or prosecution – particularly in cases involving alleged crimes against humanity or genocide.A truth commission established with the support of the United Nations found that between 1962 and 1996, roughly 200,000 people were killed or disappeared during Guatemala’s civil war. The commission concluded that state security forces and allied militias were responsible for widespread crimes against humanity and acts of genocide.Entire Indigenous communities were wiped out in hundreds of massacres. Opposition activists, labour leaders, journalists, judges, lawyers, students, teachers, academics, civil servants, and clergy were systematically kidnapped, tortured, raped, murdered, or disappeared. Sexual violence was used as a weapon of war and a tool of repression, with Indigenous women disproportionately targeted.The destruction of Indigenous communities included mass shootings; the burning of villages and farmland under scorched-earth tactics; the confinement and incineration of families inside their homes; aerial bombardments; enforced disappearances; assassinations of community and religious leaders; torture; and widespread sexual violence, as well as efforts to dismantle traditional and religious ways of life.The commission further found that a significant portion of abuses were carried out by “death squads,” which received hit lists, vehicles, weapons, and funding from the army – particularly military intelligence units. These squads were not independent actors; soldiers and officers made up the vast majority of their members, effectively operating as units of the military.Many of these abuses were carried out in public and were documented in cables sent by Israeli diplomats. Reports described mutilated bodies of abducted civilians appearing almost daily in drainage ditches, rivers, and city streets; the discovery of mass graves; daylight assassinations of teachers and political activists; and kidnappings carried out by armed groups using military and police vehicles, often in front of witnesses or family members. In some cases, individuals were abducted during funeral ceremonies. Public “death lists” were circulated, and little effort was made to conceal the destruction of Indigenous communities.Israeli diplomatic correspondence also suggests that officials were aware of these conditions. A cable dated January 18, 1971, from Israel’s ambassador to Guatemala at the time, Moshe Tov, reported the activity of death squads and plans “to eliminate all leftist ideologues and sympathisers.” A July 1980 summary by then-ambassador Eliezer Armon described daily political killings, as right-wing groups and government forces targeted individuals suspected of belonging to leftist organizations. A 1982 cable from the Israeli embassy in Stockholm reported the killing of thousands of peasants, women, and children, including approximately 5,000 Indigenous people, by government forces.Further, cables indicate that Israeli military assistance was, in part, intended to help Guatemala circumvent international sanctions imposed over human rights abuses. An April 1982 Israeli Foreign Ministry summary acknowledged Guatemala’s poor international reputation due to widespread killings and death squads, and noted that Israel faced criticism for being a key arms supplier after the U.S., under the Carter administration, had suspended military aid.A January 1984 cable from Israel’s ambassador in Washington, Meir Rosenne, reported Guatemala’s ambassador saying that after the US halted arms supplies in 1977, “Israel saved Guatemala.” Other cables called Israel Guatemala’s “most faithful friend”. In a December 10, 1984 cable, Israel’s ambassador to Colombia, Yaakov Gotlib, noted that Guatemala’s foreign minister told him that his country was “the only Central American country that overcame insurgent movements on its own, with Israel’s help and without American assistance.” Official US and Israeli cables documented that Israeli military aid to Guatemala included Galil rifles, used by all army units from at least 1977 onward; Uzi and Mini-Uzi submachine guns; ammunition for rifles and submachine guns; grenades; equipment for swapping barrels on Galil rifles; “Arava” aircraft for transporting troops to mountainous regions, some potentially armed; communication systems and radios; armoured vehicles; recoil-less rifles; patrol boats; and training programmes for Guatemalan security forces in Guatemala and Israel, including counterinsurgency.In addition, in 1980 Israel helped establish a factory to produce ammunition for Galil rifles and Uzis. From 1979, it assisted in setting up a computer center in the capital, and in 1981 built and equipped a communications and electronics school for intelligence purposes. Israeli instructors and technicians trained soldiers in radio communications, surveillance, and signal interception, while other representatives advised on operating Arava aircraft. The Mossad also provided intelligence support and an IDF military attaché was stationed in the country.In one instance, a shipment of 4,000 Galil rifles was documented because it required refuelling clearance in the US after Canada denied access. According to a June 21, 1977 cable from the US State Department, emergency permission was granted for the aircraft to land at JFK Airport and transit through US airspace. The attorney general argued that the actions were carried out in an official capacity, tied to legitimate diplomatic considerations. Official cables show that Israeli officials sought to use arms sales as leverage to persuade Guatemala to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.In 1982, then-foreign minister Yitzhak Shamir attempted to convince the junta led by general Efraín Ríos Montt to relocate the embassy, reportedly exploiting the general’s religious beliefs – despite internal assessments describing him as mentally unstable and responsible for mass killings. In 1983, Israel was among the first countries to recognise the junta of general Óscar Humberto Mejía Víctores. According to diplomatic correspondence, Israel offered additional weapons, assistance with public relations efforts in the US, and a high-profile visit to Israel to bolster the regime’s international standing – particularly among Catholic audiences – in exchange for moving the embassy. Israeli officials were also aware that Colonel Pablo Nuila Hub, who managed relations with Israel on behalf of Víctores’ junta, was involved in running death squads. In January 1984, he met with Israeli Mossad operative Mike Harari to discuss military assistance and the embassy relocation.Ultimately, it was not until May 2018 – under former Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales – that Guatemala became the first country to follow the lead of US President Donald Trump and move its embassy to Jerusalem. Later that year, Morales announced his decision to shut down the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) after it began investigating his family. While previous US administrations supported and funded the commission, the Trump administration backed Morales despite his decision to dissolve it.At the opening ceremony of the Guatemalan embassy in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “We share many goals and many values. Though we may appear distant, we are not truly far apart. You achieved your independence in 1821, but the idea of freedom – the concept of human liberty – began here, in this city, where the great prophets declared that all men and women are born equal in the eyes of God.” Eitay Mack is an Israeli human rights lawyer and activist who exposes Israel’s role in the Sri Lankan civil war and has pursued legal action in Israel.