Record 40 Senate Dems Vote to Block Weapons to Israel | Palestine Policy Roundup 4.21.26
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
THE HUMAN COST OF WAR: BY THE NUMBERS:
🇵🇸 GAZA: 766 killed since the beginning of Trump’s Gaza plan (Palestinian Ministry of Health); 2,400 Israeli violations of Trump’s Gaza plan (Gaza Government Media Office); 72,553 killed during Israel’s genocide (Palestinian Ministry of Health)
🇮🇷 IRAN: 3,375 killed (Iran Ministry of Health)🇱🇧 LEBANON: 2,294 killed (Lebanon Ministry of Health); 1.1 million displaced (UN)
🇮🇱 ISRAEL: 26 killed (Israel Ministry of Health)
🇺🇲 US: 13 servicemembers killed (US Military)
🚫 MOST SENATE DEMS VOTE TO BLOCK WEAPONS TO ISRAEL
Last Wednesday, 40 Senate Democrats voted to block weapons to Israel. 13 of these Senators voted to block weapons for the first time. This is the highest ever number of Senators to vote for such a resolution, and it represents a growing shift against deepening US complicity in Israel’s crimes.
SENDING SIGNALS: These JRDs would have blocked the delivery of 1,000-pound bombs and armored bulldozers to Israel. By voting for these JRDs, Senate Democrats sent strong messages against a continued illegal US-Israeli war on Iran as the ceasefire deadline nears its expiration.
Senate Dems also signaled their opposition to continued US complicity in Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians from their homes and land. Israel has repeatedly used armored bulldozers to destroy homes and critical infrastructure in the West Bank, Gaza, and Lebanon, and to commit atrocities with bombs in Gaza and Lebanon.
CATCHING UP WITH AMERICANS: This vote also demonstrated that Congress is finally beginning to catch up with Americans, and especially Democrats, who have opposed giving weapons to Israel and who increasingly want Israel to be held accountable for its actions.
A recent poll found that 60% of all voters opposed sending more weapons to Israel in response to its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. For Democrats and independents, this opposition rose to 75% and 66% respectively.
New polls published by IMEU Policy Project found that majorities of voters in California, Michigan, Colorado, and Arizona also supported these JRDs. These polls also found stronger support for the JRDs among Democratic and independent voters.
✂️ ISRAEL ESTABLISHES YELLOW LINE IN LEBANON
Last Thursday, Israel and Lebanon reached a ceasefire after 46 days of Israel’s relentless bombing and invasion of the country. But this hasn’t stopped Israel’s expansionist ambitions in the country or its displacement of Lebanese people.
CONTINUED ATTACKS: In the hours following the ceasefire agreement, the Lebanese army announced several Israeli violations, including attacks on towns in the southern part of the country. During the last ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel committed more than 10,000 violations of the ceasefire terms and killed more than 400 Lebanese people.
A NEW YELLOW LINE: In the latest example of Israel replicating its Gaza playbook in Lebanon, the Israeli military announced that it has established a redeployment line six miles within the southern part of Lebanon. Its military will continue to operate there and militarily occupy this territory.
This practice comes directly from Gaza, where the Israeli military maintains a redeployment line commonly called the “yellow line.” Israel militarily occupies the more than 50% of Gaza that is behind this yellow line, and Palestinians are killed if they try to return to their homes in the area.
Israel has continued to destroy homes and public infrastructure behind the yellow line in Gaza, and it has built military fortifications there–suggesting that Israel does not intend to withdraw from the area. Before the ceasefire in Lebanon, the Israeli military had begun to build new military outposts on the Lebanese side of the border.
The Israeli military is carrying out Defense Minister Israel Katz’s threat to flatten the areas of southern Lebanon behind the Israeli redeployment line. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israel is bringing in heavy machinery to the area to destroy homes and public infrastructure with the explicit goal of preventing forcibly displaced Lebanese people from returning to their homes.
The Israeli military has issued a forced displacement order, warning forcibly displaced Lebanese people not to return to areas near the Litani River, which extends far beyond its redeployment line in the country. An Israeli forced displacement order named more than 50 Lebanese towns to which displaced people are not allowed to return. As it has done in Gaza, Israel has already killed a Lebanese person who attempted to approach the area.
🆘 ISRAEL KILLS HUMANITARIAN WORKERS, CONTINUES BOMBING GAZA
KILLING HUMANITARIAN WORKERS: This week, Israel continued to attack Palestinians in Gaza in violation of the third point of President Trump’s plan for the area. Last Friday, UNICEF announced that Israel killed two Palestinian contractors as they attempted to provide clean water to Palestinians near a water filling point in northern Gaza.
This fits a pattern of Israeli attacks on humanitarian workers: on April 6, Israeli soldiers shot at a car that was transporting World Health Organization workers who were traveling in a clearly marked vehicle. The attack killed a Palestinian contractor who was working for the organization.
Israel has killed 589 humanitarian workers during the course of its genocide.
Israel’s deadly attacks against humanitarian workers must be seen in the context of its deliberate attempt to block humanitarian aid, a violation of Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, which requires the immediate cut-off of all taxpayer-financed weapons.
⚒️ ISRAEL RE-ESTABLISHES WEST BANK SETTLEMENT
Last Sunday, Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Israel Katz celebrated the re-establishment of the Sa-Nur Israeli settlement in the illegally occupied West Bank. The event marked the reopening of the settlement more than 20 years after the Israeli government unilaterally evacuated its settlers from the area in 2005. During the event, Smotrich criticized the 2005 evacuation and explicitly called for building settlements in Gaza.
This re-opening comes on the heels of the Israeli cabinet’s secret approval of more than 30 new settlement projects during the illegal war on Iran.
The establishment of these new settlements is likely to fuel even more settler attacks against Palestinians.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Sen. Bernie Sanders: “The American people want to make certain their tax dollars are spent responsibly. In strong and growing numbers, they do not want us to continue spending billions in support of the illegal, horrific and expansionist war policies of the Netanyahu government in Israel.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen raised the case of Rachel Corrie on the Senate floor. Corrie was a US citizen who was killed by the Israeli military using an armored bulldozer while she tried to protect Palestinian homes from being destroyed.
Sen. Martin Heinrich: “Israel’s indiscriminate use of gravity bombs in Gaza and the use of bulldozers for large-scale destruction of homes and infrastructure in the West Bank is a direct violation of requirements mandated under the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act. We must send Israel’s government a strong message that we will not hand them a blank check of American taxpayers’ money to kill and displace innocent civilians.”
Rep. Jim McGovern: “I believe the death penalty is wrong. But far-right politicians in Israel found a way to make it even more unjust and morally reprehensible: by passing a law that would apply it almost exclusively to Palestinians. This is abhorrent. Anyone involved in carrying out this directive should be sanctioned by the United States government. It is long past time to put our money where our mouth is and impose consequences for the Israeli government’s ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories and two-tiered system of justice.”
Rep. Valerie Foushee in response to Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza: “This is heartless—more innocent Palestinians are being killed while conflicts continue throughout the region. America can't keep supporting death and destruction at the hands of Israel in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. We must stop arms sales to Israel and pass legislation to prevent our involvement.”
Rep. Melanie Stansbury: “Earlier this week, another global flotilla mission left Spain to deliver food, medicine, and water to Gaza. We are calling for an end to inhumane blockade to Gaza and to allow these supplies in. The world is watching. History will remember.”
Photo: mark reinstein, via Shutterstock. Stock Photo ID: 1186368265