Twenty US Lawmakers Urge Biden Administration to Halt ‘Offensive Weapons’ to Israel Amid Gaza Genocide
Washington (Quds News Network)- Twenty US Democratic lawmakers have called on President Joe Biden’s administration to halt the transfer of “offensive weapons” to Israel, citing Israel’s failure to meet US demands for increased humanitarian aid to Gaza.
In a Tuesday letter addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Congress members called on Washington to uphold its own laws that restrict military aid to countries that commit war crimes and block US-backed humanitarian assistance.
The letter was led by Summer Lee and Greg Casar, who was recently elected to lead the Congressional Progressive Caucus next year.
Claiming to fight for a ceasefire and continuing to send weapons to the Israeli government to indiscriminately bomb Gaza are mutually exclusive.
Proud to join @RepCasar in leading 20 of my colleagues to demand an end to this conflict. https://t.co/MdjBWrGIvj
— Rep. Summer Lee (@RepSummerLee) December 17, 2024
“We believe continuing to transfer offensive weapons to the Israeli government prolongs the suffering of the Palestinian people and risks our own national security by sending a message to the world that the US will apply its laws, policies, and international law selectively,” the letter read.
It added that failure to act would prolong Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Gaza, “isolating Israel on the international stage and creating further instability in the region”.
The letter focuses on the Biden administration’s ultimatum to Israel in October, when US officials warned Israel in a letter to enable the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza within 30 days or face consequences.
Although several humanitarian groups have said that Israel failed to meet the conditions outlined by Washington to improve the situation in Gaza, the Biden administration said after the deadline that it would continue to provide weapons to Israel.
“While Israel made nominal progress in some areas, it overwhelmingly failed to meet the minimum standards laid out in the Administration’s own letter,” the lawmakers wrote.
The Biden administration has set a record by spending at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel in the year following October 7, 2023, according to a recent report by Brown University’s Costs of War project.
The congressional letter coincided with the filing of a lawsuit by Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and the US aiming to compel Washington to end military support to Israeli army units engaging in human rights violations.
