Congress Must Block the Bombs to Israel
IMEU Policy Project Memo #20
BACKGROUND
Since October 2023, the Biden and Trump administrations have delivered more than $30 billion of US taxpayer-funded weapons to Israel to enable it to perpetrate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, making the US complicit in Israel’s actions.
These weapons deliveries have taken place in violation of US law, which prevents any form of US assistance going to a country which blocks the delivery of US humanitarian aid and engages in a consistent pattern of gross human rights violations.
Not only are US weapons deliveries to Israel illegal under US law; they are also immoral. Israel has used US weapons to kill more than 54,500 Palestinians and injure nearly 125,000 (nearly 10 percent of Gaza’s population); Israel has forcibly displaced 90% of Palestinians from their homes repeatedly, some as many as ten times; Israel has damaged or destroyed 92% of housing units in Gaza; and Israel has starved to death Palestinians through its nearly total blockade of aid to Gaza, leaving more than 2 million people on the brink of famine.
A new bill in Congress–H.R.3565, the Block the Bombs Act–introduced by Rep. Delia Ramirez, co-led by Reps. Sara Jacobs, Pramila Jayapal, and Mark Pocan, and originally cosponsored by 18 additional Members of Congress, seeks to end US complicity in Israel’s genocidal violence by proactively blocking the delivery to Israel of the types of weapons it has used to commit atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza.
💡POLICY ASK: IMEU Policy Project strongly urges all Representatives to cosponsor this historic bill to ensure that US laws regarding weapons transfers are upheld.
TOPLINES
Israel is using US weapons to commit horrific atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza, massacring entire families, attacking people in supposed “safe zones”, targeting hospitals, schools, and religious institutions, and starving children to death.
Members of Congress must uphold US law. The Foreign Assistance Act prohibits any type of US assistance going to a country which blocks either directly or indirectly US humanitarian aid and engages in a consistent pattern of gross human rights violations.
Since January, the Trump administration has fast-tracked more than $12 billion in weapons deliveries to Israel, most of which was delivered after the White House circumvented Congressional oversight to bypass concerns about these weapons deliveries. This bill retakes Congressional prerogatives from an administration bent on undermining Congressional authority.
The majority of all Americans and the vast majority of all Democrats support the aims of this bill. According to a CBS News Poll, 61% of all Americans believe that the US should not send weapons to Israel; 71% of likely Democratic primary voters also believe that the US should restrict weapons to Israel, according to a Data for Progress-Zeteo poll.
DETAILS
H.R.3565 would proactively block the Trump administration from delivering seven types of weapons to Israel:
(1) BLU–109 bunker busting bombs.
(2) MK80 series bomb variants.
(3) GBU–39 small diameter bomb variants (including Increment I).
(4) Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) assemblies.
(5) SPICE gliding bomb assemblies.
(6) 120mm tank ammunition.
(7) 155mm artillery ammunition, including white phosphorus munitions.
Israel has used these weapons extensively in its genocidal violence against Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. To take a few of many examples:
On May 13, Israel fired US-supplied “bunker busters” at the European Hospital in Gaza, an attack which killed at least 28 Palestinians.
Israel’s attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in October 2023, likely conducted with an MK-84 bomb, killed at least 120 Palestinians.
On May 26, Israel fired GBU-39 small diameter bombs at Palestinians sheltering at the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City, killing an estimated 30 people there.
CNN found evidence of at least one JDAM at the site of an Israeli massacre of at least 90 Palestinians in the designated safe zone of al-Mawasi in July 2024.
In October 2023, a 120mm tank round fired by the Israeli military killed a Reuters journalist, Issam Abdullah.
Also in October 2023, Israel fired 155mm artillery shells containing white phosphorus against Palestinians and Lebanese. The use of this incendiary against civilians is prohibited.
For many additional examples of these types of weapons being used by Israel to commit atrocities against Palestinians, see:
Photo: Anas-Mohammed, via Shutterstock. Stock Photo ID: 2449130437