Joint Resolutions of Disapproval Needed to Block Record Weapons Sales to Israel
IMEU Policy Project Memo #11
ISSUE: On August 13, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress of five possible Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Israel totaling more than $20 billion, a record-breaking series of potential sales which would further deepen US complicity in Israel’s genocidal violence against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
In addition, Zeteo reported on August 9 that the State Department notified Congress of a Direct Commercial Sale (DCS) to Israel of 6,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) valued at $262 million.
These weapons sales are likely to be paid for through annual and supplemental Foreign Military Financing (FMF) appropriated to Israel by Congress, making US taxpayers directly complicit in Israeli atrocities committed against Palestinians with these weapons.
Congress has fifteen calendar days to block these potential sales through the passage of one or more Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs). According to the Congressional Research Service, this clock starts once the notifications are published in the Congressional Record, a step which is likely to occur shortly after Congress reconvenes from its August recess on September 9.
ASK: The IMEU Policy Project strongly encourages {{LegislatorLastName}} to introduce or cosponsor one or more JRDs to halt these weapons sales
TOPLINES: Congress must act to stop these weapons sales from proceeding because:
Israel’s current genocidal violence against Palestinians in Gaza makes it ineligible for ANY weapons sales, according to US law and Biden administration policies. The Arms Export Control Act (AECA), the law under which Congress can introduce a JRD, limits the use of US weapons “solely for internal security, for legitimate self-defense,” and for a few other scenarios not applicable to Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. No sales or deliveries of any weapons are permitted to a country in “substantial violation” of these limitations.
In addition, under the Biden administration’s Conventional Arms Transfer (CAT) policy, weapons are not supposed to be delivered to a country when it is “more likely than not that the arms to be transferred will be used by the recipient to commit, facilitate the recipients’ commission of, or to aggravate risks that the recipient will commit: genocide; crimes against humanity; grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, including attacks intentionally directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such; or other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law, including serious acts of gender‑based violence or serious acts of violence against children.”
Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 16,500 children, since October, and has repeatedly and systematically committed every single atrocity enumerated in the CAT policy by deliberately targeting civilians, homes, schools and universities, hospitals, mosques and churches, and places of refuge in so-called “safe zones”. In addition, Israel’s deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war, alongside its denial of water, electricity, and medical supplies, constitute grave violations of international humanitarian law (IHL).
The American people want an arms embargo on Israel and do not want to be complicit in Israel’s genocidal violence against Palestinians in Gaza. A March 2024 public opinion poll conducted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that 52% of Americans believe that the US should halt all weapons shipments to Israel until it stops attacking Palestinians in Gaza. Only 27% of Americans support continuing weapons shipments. Among those who voted for President Biden in 2020, 62% support halting weapons to Israel while only 14% oppose.
Not only do the majority of Americans support halting weapons shipments to Israel. IMEU Policy Project also found that committing to imposing an arms embargo on Israel is a winning electoral strategy for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Our public opinion poll of Democratic and independent voters in three key swing states conducted by YouGov found that 39% of Georgia voters would be more likely to vote for Harris if she commits to an arms embargo whereas only 5% of voters would be less likely to vote for her. Similar results obtained in Arizona (35% to 5%) and in Pennsylvania (34% to 7%).
Israel must be held to the same standard as any other country receiving US weapons, not given an exemption from globally applicable US laws and policies which are supposed to prevent US weapons from being used to commit atrocities.
JRDs are common oversight tools to promote human rights, and they have been used in recent years to raise concerns about arms sales to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. Previously, Members of Congress have also introduced JRDs for weapon sales to Israel. In 2021, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mark Pocan, and Rashida Tlaib introduced a JRD to block JDAMs and Small Diameter Bombs Increment I to Israel. Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a version of this JRD in the Senate. And last November, Rep. Ilhan Omar introduced a JRD with five cosponsors to block the sale of $320 million of Spice Family Guided Bomb Assemblies to Israel.
The limitations on the usage of US weapons as defined by the AECA and the CAT policy are applicable globally. Israel must not be singled out for special treatment and exempted from human rights standards that apply to all countries under US law and Biden administration policy.
DETAILS: In addition to the above-mentioned reasons why Congress should block all weapons sales to Israel, all six of the potential weapons sales notified to Congress by the Departments of Defense and State will enable Israel to commit additional atrocities against Palestinian civilians and/or enable potential Israeli aggression against other regional militaries, exacerbating the possibility of the US getting enmeshed in a regional conflagration.
F-15IA and F-15I+ aircraft and related equipment for an estimated cost of $18.82 billion.
Israel is engaging in a systematic pattern of airstrikes targeting Palestinian civilians in Gaza, potentially amounting to war crimes. In May, Amnesty International reported that since October it has investigated “16 Israeli air strikes that killed a total of 370 civilians, including 159 children, and left hundreds more wounded.” Amnesty International found “evidence of war crimes by Israeli forces, including direct attacks on civilians or indiscriminate attacks, as well as other unlawful attacks and collective punishment of the civilian population.”Israel heavily relies on US war planes to carry out bombings and has a reported 66 F-15 fighter jets in its current fleet of aircraft. Although F-15s do not leave behind physical evidence like bombs or artillery shells, these fighter jets could have been used in the commission of war crimes documented by Amnesty International.
120mm Tank Cartridges and related equipment for an estimated cost of $774.1 million.
Israeli 120mm tank cartridges were used to target journalists in Lebanon. According to Amnesty International, on October 13, 2023, Israeli tank shells killed Reuters photojournalist Issam Abdullah and severely injured AFP videographer Christina Assi. Amnesty International stated that these Israeli attacks on journalists in Lebanon “were likely a direct attack on civilians that must be investigated as a war crime.”
According to the American Friends Service Committee, the specific type of M830A1 High Explosive Multi-Purpose Anti-Tank (MPAT) listed in this FMS is linked to previous Israeli tank attacks against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, including a December 2023 attack on a UN school and the January 29, 2024 attack that killed 6-year-old Hind Rajab, her six family members, and the medics who attempted to rescue her, in the Gaza neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa.
Although medium tactical vehicles may not be directly tied to Israel’s previous violations of IHL, Members of Congress should be concerned about the ways in which Israeli military vehicles in general have been used to commit atrocities. For example, in June, Israeli soldiers tied a wounded Palestinian to a vehicle. This incident of using a Palestinian as a human shield is a brazen violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and a war crime.
In addition, Defense for Children International-Palestine reported that on August 6, an Israeli military vehicle deliberately ran over an already-injured Palestinian child, Khatab Majdi Asad Abu Badawiya, in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing him.
Even if medium tactical vehicles have not been used directly by Israel to commit atrocities against Palestinians, these vehicles–by facilitating troop movements–have an indirect role in enabling violations of IHL by Israeli troops.
6,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) for an estimated cost of $262 million.
Israel’s use of JDAMs has been linked to potential war crimes against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and civilians in Lebanon. For example, in December 2023, Amnesty International found that Israel used JDAMs in “two deadly, unlawful air strikes on homes full of civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip,” which killed 43 people, including 19 children.
And in May, Human Rights Watch documented that Israel targeted a residential building in Lebanon with JDAMs, killing seven Lebanese aid workers, in an “unlawful attack on civilians.”
In addition, in July, Israel attacked a so-called “safe zone” in al-Mawasi, in which internally displaced Palestinians were sheltering, killing at least 90 people and injuring hundreds more. A CNN investigation found that Israel carried out this attack with at least one JDAM.
Although air-to-air missiles do not pose a direct threat to Palestinian civilians, provision of AMRAAMs to Israel may increase the chances that Israel will engage in acts of aggression against other regional air forces, potentially escalating the regional dimensions of its attacks and potentially enmeshing the US in a broader regional war.
Although Israel’s use of mortars in Gaza have not yet been tied to specific violations of IHL, Forbes notes that Israel’s usage of mortars have played a prominent role in its attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. Army Technology also raised concerns that the usage of mortars in densely populated areas of Gaza could exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.
Congress must do due diligence on this FMS and request additional information from the Biden administration about the impact of Israel’s use of mortars in its attacks against Palestinians in Gaza.