ACTION ALERT:
Urge Congress to Pass Joint Resolution of
Disapproval for Arms Transfers to Israel
Kevin Martin / Peace Action
(September 17, 2024) — Recently, the Biden administration announced a massive $20 billion weapons deal for Israel. The arms packages announced look to include:
🧨 $18.8 billion for 50 F-15 fighter jets and related equipment
🧨 $774 million for 32,739 120mm tank cartridges
🧨 $61 million for 50,000 high-explosive mortar cartridges
🧨 $262 million for 6,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs)
Since the beginning of this war in Gaza in October 2023, the US has approved billions of dollars in weapons and military equipment to the Israeli government. Tragically yet unsurprisingly, these weapons have been used to slaughter and displace tens of thousands of Palestinians, and to uphold a brutal siege that is starving children across Gaza.
Congress has the legal power to block this madness, but your Congress members need to hear from you! Using a tool called a Congressional Joint Resolution of Disapproval, Congress can block some or all of these deadly weapons from pouring into the war in Gaza.
Numerous groups on the ground, including Oxfam and Human Rights Watch, have documented Israeli violations of international humanitarian law – including indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, systematic blocking of aid assistance, strikes on or near several major hospitals and schools, and more.
Just last week, at least 18 people, including United Nations staff, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a UN school-turned-shelter in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza. (1)
Step one in ending US complicity in these atrocities begins by blocking the flow of weapons sales to Israel. Indeed, a majority of Americans support this, as a June CBS poll showed that 61% of Americans believe the US should not send additional weapons to Israel. (2)
This war needs to be brought to an end, and that will require a full and permanent ceasefire. Yet, a real and immediate ceasefire is nearly impossible to realize while the US is simultaneously sending a steady flow of bombs to the Israeli government, effectively green-lighting and enabling its atrocities. Make no mistake––Israel’s genocide has been backed and enabled by the US every step of the way.
It wasn’t that long ago that just a handful of our strongest allies in Congress were leading the call for a ceasefire. Today, because of massive grassroots pressure, that has become a common call amongst US officials. But this weapons package will only embolden and empower the war and genocide against the Palestinian people to continue at full scale. We can’t get complacent now.
Kevin Martin is the President of Peace Action
Sources:
(1) https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/19/israeli-assurances-use-us-arms-legally-are-not-credible
(2) https://theintercept.com/2024/09/10/polls-arms-embargo-israel-weapons-gaza/
