Block the Bombs Act Reaches 50 Supporters, Endorsed by Progressive Caucus | Palestine Policy Roundup 09.22.25
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Delia Ramirez: “The evidence just keeps mounting that Israel's government is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. As Israel expands its ground invasion into Gaza City, our government cannot continue to deny what so many clearly see. It is time for members of Congress to take a stand and cosponsor my Block the Bombs Act. Americans do not want to be complicit in the atrocities. We must act! Not one more dollar. Not one more bomb. Not one more excuse.”
Rep. Becca Balint: “Today, I believe the Israeli government is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people…Those of us in government can and must save lives by using our platform to stop horrific suffering and end the endless shipment of arms to Israel.”
Rep. Greg Casar: “We must stop funding this genocide. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians live in Gaza City. They will have to flee again or risk being killed. This is what Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meant when he said ‘we will eliminate everything’ in Gaza.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders: “The intent is clear. The conclusion is inescapable: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza…The United States must not continue sending many billions of dollars and weapons to Netanyahu’s genocidal government.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar: “The UN report makes plain what so many families in Gaza have been living through: the deliberate destruction of Palestinians. We have a moral responsibility to stop enabling this genocide and hold Israel accountable.”
DC DEVELOPMENTS
📈 50 REPRESENTATIVES SIGN ON TO BLOCK THE BOMBS ACT AS CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS ENDORSES IT
Last Thursday, Reps. Melanie Stansbury and Teresa Leger Fernández co-sponsored the Block the Bombs Act, bringing the total number of Representatives signed on to the bill to 50. This is an important milestone for the bill and demonstrates that Democratic elected officials are catching up with clear evidence that Democratic voters do not want to deepen US complicity in Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.
Last Saturday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus voted to endorse the bill, marking the first time that the nearly 100-member-strong caucus endorsed a bill related to Palestinian rights. The caucus is also the first major Congressional caucus to endorse a bill to bring the US into compliance with US law and stop weapons deliveries to Israel.
Both of these developments demonstrate increasing Democratic opposition to unbridled US support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. As more Americans–especially Democrats–continue to express their opposition to sending more weapons to Israel, Representatives should continue to listen to voters and take the crucial step of supporting the Block the Bombs Act.
💡 POLICY ASK: IMEU Policy Project strongly urges all Representatives to cosponsor the historic Block the Bombs Act to ensure that US laws regarding weapons transfers are upheld.
📖 LEARN MORE Check out IMEU Policy Project’s policy memo on the need for the Block the Bombs Act.
📣 TAKE ACTION: Write to your Representative and urge them to sign on to the Block the Bombs Act, or thank them for signing on!
🏛️ FAMILIES OF AMERICANS KILLED BY ISRAELI VIOLENCE BRING CALLS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY TO CONGRESS
Last week, the families of several US citizens killed by Israeli violence brought their demands for justice and accountability directly to Members of Congress. Family members of Ayşenur Eygi, Sayfollah Musallet, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, and Rachel Corrie were joined by the uncle of Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old Palestinian-American child and US citizen who has been detained by the Israeli military without trial since February.
The family members held a press conference to demand justice for their loved ones that featured remarks from several Members of Congress. They also held meetings with several Members of Congress, one of which came as Senator Peter Welch led a bicameral letter to the State Department that demanded answers about the killing of Ayşenur by an Israeli sniper and the injuring of Dylan Collins in another attack.
IMEU Policy Project was proud to host these families.
Israeli violence has killed nine US citizens in the West Bank and Gaza since 2022. The Trump administration has so far refused to investigate, much less to hold Israel accountable for, any of these killings, just as the Biden administration also refused to investigate or hold Israel accountable.
💣 TRUMP ADMINISTRATION REPORTEDLY PREPARING $6 BILLION IN WEAPONS TRANSFERS TO ISRAEL
Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration notified Congress of a $6 billion weapons package for Israel, which would be funded by US taxpayers. The Trump administration has already advanced other weapons packages for Israel costing $12.5 billion in total–this weapons transfer would increase that figure by about 50% to $18.5 billion.
The package reportedly includes $3.8 billion for AH-64 Apache attack helicopter gunships, $1.9 billion for infantry assault vehicles, and $750 million for parts for troop carriers and power supplies.
Israel is already using some of these vehicles in its invasion of Gaza City and its forced displacement of Palestinians sheltering there. The Israeli military is reportedly using explosive-laden unmanned armored personnel carriers (APCs) to destroy infrastructure there and flatten the area. The deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure is a war crime.
Israel has used Apache helicopter gunships throughout its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. In June 2024, a helicopter was recorded firing over the tents of displaced Palestinians in central Gaza. Palestinian journalists also report that Apache helicopters are being used in Israel’s destruction of Gaza City.
Additionally, in October 2023, the Israeli military fired a missile from a US-supplied Apache helicopter gunship toward a group of Palestinian civilians in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank, killing four children and six adults.
Providing these weapons will only deepen US complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and it brazenly violates both international and US law. Continuing weapons transfers to Israel despite its apparent violations of international law in Gaza violates the Arms Export Control Act, and the administration is violating Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act by continuing to supply Israel with weapons despite its near-total blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
As Israel continues to forcibly displace Palestinians as part of its campaign of ethnic cleansing, Members of Congress must send a clear message of opposition to deeper US complicity in these crimes. Specifically, the “Four Corners” should place holds on these weapons deliveries and bring the US into compliance with the AECA and Section 620I.
IN THE NEWS
⚠️ UN COMMISSION FINDS ISRAEL HAS COMMITTED GENOCIDE AGAINST PALESTINIANS IN GAZA
Last Tuesday, a UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, affirming what Palestinians have been saying since Israel began its assault on Gaza and joining a growing list of individuals and organizations that are correctly naming Israel’s atrocities as genocide.
The commission concluded that Israeli authorities and the Israeli military have committed four genocidal acts as outlined in the Genocide Convention: killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
The atrocities examined by the commission and cited as evidence of Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza include the deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians, including children and medical workers, its systematic destruction of educational and medical infrastructure, the deliberate and manufactured starvation of Palestinians through a near-total blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid and weaponization of food through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and much more.
The report also establishes that Israeli officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu–who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for his culpability in alleged war crimes in Gaza–Israeli President Isaac Herzog, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and many other individuals directly and publicly incited genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and demonstrated Israel’s genocidal intent.
The recommendations for third states to respond to Israel’s genocidal atrocities include ending weapons transfers to Israel to prevent their use in its genocide of Palestinians, holding individuals and entities within their own jurisdictions accountable for their roles in these alleged crimes, and ensuring that individuals and corporations are not involved in the genocide.
As a party to the Genocide Convention, the United States has an obligation to prevent the crime of genocide that is being committed by Israel in Gaza. The best ways to honor that obligation would be to immediately end all weapons transfers to Israel.
⚖️ MAHMOUD KHALIL CHALLENGES IMMIGRATION RULING BASED ON RETALIATORY CHARGES
Last week, it was revealed that the immigration judge overseeing the case of Mahmoud Khalil advanced his deportation order based on retaliatory charges levied by the Trump administration after he was detained. Khalil’s legal team is appealing the decision, and the deportation order cannot advance as his federal civil rights case on the government’s violation of his constitutional rights continues.
In a letter filed with the Judge Michael Fairbiarz, who is presiding over Khalil’s federal case, his legal team noted that advancing his deportation order is a rare and unprecedented move because he does not have a criminal record and his wife and child are US citizens. They also argued that the charges on which the order is based are baseless and pretextual, and that the immigration judge did not hold a hearing on the evidence underlying the charges in violation of due process.
Earlier this year, Judge Fairbiarz ordered Khalil’s release after finding that the same charges did not require that he remain detained at an ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana. In that ruling Farbiarz wrote of these charges that “[t]here is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish Mr. Khalil. And of course that would be unconstitutional.”
Clearly, the federal government is continuing its attempts to punish Khalil over his speech and activism in support of Palestinian rights, despite its losses in his case and in the cases of Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi. While Mahmoud and others might be free, the Trump administration’s assault on speech and activism in support of Palestinian rights is far from over–and may be a part of a much broader crackdown on free speech.
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
📵 ISRAEL CUTS COMMUNICATIONS IN GAZA CITY AS IT LAUNCHES NEWEST PHASE OF ITS INVASION
Last week, the Israeli military launched the latest phase of its assault on Gaza City as Israeli troops began to enter deep into Gaza City after weeks of bombardment and deliberate destruction of infrastructure in its surrounding neighborhoods and other areas of northern Gaza. Israeli tanks and armored vehicles advanced toward the area and began to encircle the city, where more than one million Palestinians were sheltering before Israel issued a forced displacement order.
As the Israeli military began this new phase in its campaign for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza, it reportedly targeted a main fiber optic route and disrupted Palestinians’ access to the internet and other communications. This communications blackout not only serves to limit the visibility of Israel’s atrocities within the city, but also makes it more difficult for Palestinians who remain there to know which areas and roads they can safely traverse.
According to the Israeli military, 350,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from the city, while the UN estimated that 190,000 have left. More than one half million Palestinians are estimated to have stayed in Gaza City as Israeli troops and assault vehicles advance into the area, with many being forced to remain because of the exorbitant costs associated with traveling to southern Gaza.
Palestinians who remain there are faced with an even greater scarcity of food and humanitarian aid as key humanitarian groups have suspended and restricted their operations in response to Israel’s invasion. Last month, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger monitor found that famine is already present in Gaza, and the suspension of these services is likely to greatly exacerbate Israel’s deliberate and manufactured starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.