Groups urge Biden to suspend $ 735m arms sales in Israel | Conflicts between Israel and Palestine Issues
Peace activists and pro-Palestinian groups in the United States want President Joe Biden to ban the sale of $ 735m bombs in Israel so that Biden’s administration can run them quickly.
“We know we are moving weapons into a country that is not only violent and in violation of human rights,” said Huwaida Arraf, chairman of the Palestinian National Lawyers Guild and Palestinian rights coordinator in the US.
“Our government is supporting Israel, not with the billions of dollars we send to Israel, but by protecting Israel from accountability,” Arraf told Al Jazeera.
A coalition of more than 100 groups, including Churches for Middle East Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace, Friends Committee on National Legislation and anti-Democratic Justice Justice Democrats, MoveOn, Indivisible, and Sunrise Movement, signed the opening letter to Biden.
“The sale of arms to Israel will send a signal to support Israel’s recent actions in Gaza and East Jerusalem, which include violations of international law,” the groups said in a statement.
“We hope that these advances in trade will undermine US sentiment, national security, and aiding and abetting international law by sending Israeli intelligence to violate the rights of the Palestinian people,” the groups said.
Biden officials informed Congress of arranged for $ 735m to sell weapons on May 5, giving lawmakers 15 days to file an objection. The State Department issued a permit on May 21 for the Boeing Comp to continue selling.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders presented elections to Congress ban on selling under US arms control law.
Those who have failed miserably are frustrated with business opponents who hope to try to force a debate and vote in Congress, the audience said.
“The sale of these weapons is usually sealed with rubber, and there is a lack of transparency in the way they work,” said Beth Miller, senior government manager at Jewish Voice for Peace.
“We’ve all just seen, in the last few weeks, how Israel uses these weapons,” Miller told Al Jazeera.
“They used them in dormitories, hospitals, destroyed COVID facilities and exterminated Palestinian families.”
More than 11 days in May, an Israeli bombing in Gaza killed 253 Palestinians, including 66 children, and displaced more than 58,000 people. Twelve people in Israel including two children have been killed by rockets fired by Palestinian groups in Gaza.
Once the arms deal has now been approved by the State Department and Congress has not taken any action to stop it, it will be several months before a bomb is disposed of and US forces want Biden to suspend the transfer through officials.
US already offers $ 3.8bn in military assistance to Israel annual and Biden facilitates shipping $ 1bn requested by Israel to restore his Iron Dome armor.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz went to Washington, DC last week to force Iron Dome funding at major conferences.
Biden has been supporter Israelis have repeatedly said in the recent crisis that the US is directly supporting Israel’s right to protect itself from eagles.
At the same time, Biden and his supervisors worked together to end the war and the US did donated $ 75m to help rebuild Gaza following the recent eruption of Israel.
The parties that signed the letter hope that Biden, the Democrat, will listen to the political pressure within the Democratic Party for Israel to prosper.
Continuing with the sale of weapons $ 735m is now sending the wrong signal, says Kyle Cristofalo, director of advocacy and government relations at Churches for Middle East Peace, a group of umbrellas of many US religions.
“It will only aggravate the problem and make it worse. It will not help us to strive for stability, to end the war, to promote peace and justice, for all, “Cristofalo told Al Jazeera.
