19 Senators Support Sanders JRDs in Historic Vote on Weapons Sales To Israel | Palestine Policy Roundup 11.22.24
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project. The Palestine Policy Roundup will be taking a brief hiatus in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. We will return in December.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Rashida Tlaib: “Today's historic arrest warrants cannot bring back the dead and displaced, but they are a major step towards holding war criminals accountable. Netanyahu and Gallant must be arrested and brought before the ICC.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders: “The death and destruction in Gaza is funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars, which has provided over $18 billion in military aid to Israel. In other words, we are complicit. That is why I am forcing a vote on the floor of the Senate this Wednesday to block additional offensive arms sales.”
Sen. George Helmy: “There is a de facto blockade of even the most basic aid supplies getting through Kerem Shalom crossing, the only viable point of entrance for aid to Gaza and the West Bank. This blockade has severely restricted the amount of aid to make it to the desperate Palestinians whose lives literally depend on it…These are pallets upon pallets of food, medication, pillows, latrines, and winterized tents to keep families warm as winter sets in – all of it just sitting there, because of a manmade blockade.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “Recipients of security assistance must facilitate and not arbitrarily restrict the delivery of humanitarian assistance into war zones where U.S. weapons are being used, and American-supplied weapons must be used in accordance with international humanitarian law….President Biden has failed to hold Netanyahu accountable – ignoring U.S. law and undercutting his own stated policies as well as America’s interests and values.”
DC DEVELOPMENTS
🚫 19 SENATORS VOTE TO BLOCK WEAPONS TO ISRAEL IN HISTORIC VOTE
On Wednesday the US Senate held the first-ever vote to block weapons to Israel after the Biden administration failed to enforce US law on weapons transfers for over a year. 19 Senators voted to block weapons including guidance kits (JDAMs) for dumb bombs Israel has used to kill hundreds of Palestinians civilians, and 120mm tank rounds and mortar cartridges. Many, if not all, of these weapons have been used by Israel to further its campaign of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and many of these exact US-provided weapons have been used in many potential war crimes committed by Israel.
Despite the fact that 77% of Democrats and 61% of Americans overall support cutting off weapons to Israel, the Biden administration lobbied heavily against these joint resolutions of disapproval.
For over a year, the Biden administration has violated US law and its own policy by continuing the flow of weapons to Israel despite mountains of evidence that it was violating international law by committing genocide in Gaza and restricting aid to the occupied territory. Most recently, despite Israel failing to satisfy any stipulation in an administration letter demanding that Israel increase aid to Gaza, President Biden violated Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act and National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) by continuing weapons to Israel.
There is still time for the Biden administration to comply with US law and its own policy. During his waning days in office, President Biden must immediately halt all weapons to Israel and put a stop to US complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Members of Congress must continue to pressure the Biden administration to follow the law, exercise their oversight authority over weapons transfers, and end weapons to Israel.
📖 LEARN MORE about these weapons transfers and how they have been used in apparent war crimes in the IMEU Policy Project’s policy memo on the need for these JRDs.
📣 15 HOUSE DEMOCRATS JOIN REPUBLICANS TO PASS BILL THAT WOULD AID TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IN TARGETING PROGRESSIVE GROUPS
15 House Democrats joined nearly every Republican Representative to pass a bill that would grant sweeping powers to the incoming Trump administration to dismantle progressive nonprofits. Under HR 9495, the Trump administration would gain another tool to target First Amendment rights. Last week 52 Democrats voted with Republicans when this bill came for a vote under suspension and failed. The fact that more than three dozen Democrats flipped their votes this week shows growing opposition to this dangerous bill.
More than 120 civil society organizations, including the ACLU, American Federation of Teachers, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, League of Conservation Voters, MoveOn, NAACP, and Public Citizen, to name a few, oppose this bill because the potential for abuse under this bill “is immense as the executive branch would be handed a tool it could use to curb free speech, censor nonprofit media outlets, target political opponents, and punish disfavored groups across the political spectrum. Moreover, the addition of this authority to the tax code would allow the IRS to explicitly target and harass domestic nonprofits using its investigative authority.”
MAGA Republicans have made it obvious that they seek to dismantle US nonprofit organizations which speak out about Palestinian rights in order to suppress speech in support of the Palestinian people and make it easier for Israel to maintain its oppressive status quo. Enacting this dangerous law as the Trump administration prepares to take office also will embolden it to repress a broad swath of organizations working to advance causes such as immigrant and LGBTQ+ rights, to name just a few other movements which are currently in the crosshairs of the MAGA Republicans’ agenda.
📖 LEARN MORE: Read the IMEU Policy Project’s policy memo on how this bill fits into a MAGA assault on free speech.
IN THE NEWS
🚨 ICC ISSUES LONG AWAITED ARREST WARRANTS FOR ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, OTHERS
The International Criminal Court has issued warrants for the arrests of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.
Specifically, the court charged the pair as co-perpetrators in using starvation as a method of warfare, a war crime, and “the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”, and also charged them as civilian superiors of Israeli forces for directing an attack against civilians, also a war crime. This is a crucial step toward holding Israel accountable for its ongoing genocide in Gaza.
While the pair now risk arrest when they travel abroad to any of the 124 member states of the court, the US is likely to continue shielding Netanyahu and Gallant from accountability. After the Labour government took power in the UK parliamentary elections earlier this year, the US reportedly pressured the new Labour government to maintain the previous Conservative government’s challenge to the warrants. The Labour government eventually dropped the challenge to the warrants.
When ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced in May that he was seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas leadership, President Biden selectively denounced the seeking of warrants against Israeli leadership. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also told Congress that the Biden administration was willing to work with it to impose sanctions on the ICC in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, a position which the administration subsequently retracted.
After the warrants were issued, a White House National Security Council spokesperson rejected the ICC’s decision, calling it “rushed” and citing “troubling process errors.” Meanwhile, countries such as Ireland and the Netherlands have set an important example by supporting the ICC’s decision. The Biden administration must end its efforts to intervene against these warrants and uphold international law. The administration must also end its complicity in these crimes and end all weapons to Israel.
📖 LEARN MORE: Read the IMEU Policy Project’s policy memo, published earlier this year, detailing why Congress and the Biden administration must avoid sanctioning the ICC and uphold accountability for all at the court.
⚖️ NORWAY TO SEEK ICJ ADVISORY OPINION CONDEMNING ISRAEL’S BAN ON UNRWA
Norway will submit a resolution to the UN General Assembly requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on Israel’s obligations to provide aid to Palestinians as an occupying power. This resolution is a response to the Israeli Knesset’s passage of two bills that would ban UNRWA from operating in Israel and in the occupied territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and the advisory opinion would seek to protect the existence of the aid organization. Earlier this year, the ICJ issued provisional measures in the genocide case brought by South Africa which ordered Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, but Israel has refused to do so.
This ban would have severe effects on Palestinian refugees, especially in Gaza. UNRWA not only distributes aid, but also provides services like education and healthcare for 6 million Palestinian refugees in the occupied territories and in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. Half of these refugees live within the West Bank and Gaza. More than 500,000 Palestinian children were enrolled in UNRWA schools and 1.7 million Palestinians received humanitarian assistance from the agency in 2021.
This legislation also poses a unique threat to Palestinians in Gaza as Israel continues its genocide there. 1.9 million Palestinians–90% of its population–have been displaced. Palestinians routinely shelter in UNRWA schools, and UNRWA is the only agency capable of distributing desperately needed aid at the necessary scale in Gaza.
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
❌ 66 PALESTINIANS KILLED IN ISRAELI STRIKE AS SIEGE OF NORTHERN GAZA CONTINUES
Israeli forces killed at least 66 Palestinians in an overnight strike on a residential block near the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Thursday, as Israel continues its siege of northern Gaza and attacks Palestinians who remain in the area. Israeli forces killed 22 more Palestinians, including 10 children, on Thursday in strikes on the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City. That strike reportedly hit a five-story residential building.
Civil Defense workers report that in the aftermath of both strikes Palestinians remain buried under the rubble because rescuers do not have equipment to quickly clear it and reach those who are buried. Medical workers also report that the Kamal Adwan Hospital cannot cope with the extent of injuries and casualties as Israel continues to block medical resources and other aid from reaching northern Gaza.
Last weekend, an Israeli strike on a residential building in Beit Lahiya killed at least 50 Palestinians. A third of the victims were children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. That strike also hit a multistory residential building, which reportedly was housing Palestinians families who were forcibly displaced by Israeli forces. Rescue workers could not reach the site due to Israel’s siege on northern Gaza. Israeli forces also struck the Abu Assi school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City over the weekend, killing 10 Palestinians and wounding others who were sheltering in the school.
🩺 NEW REPORT REVEALS DETAILS OF TORTURE, KILLING OF PALESTINIAN DOCTOR BY ISRAELI AUTHORITIES
A report published by Sky News last week detailed the torture and killing of Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, a Palestinian doctor who was serving in Gaza when he was detained by Israeli forces and who was killed while in Israeli custody.
In a deposition to lawyers from an Israeli human rights organization, a Palestinian prisoner who was detained at Israel’s Ofer prison reported that “The prison guards brought Dr Adnan Al-Bursh into the section in a deplorable state. He had clearly been assaulted with injuries around his body. He was naked in the lower part of his body. The prison guards threw him in the middle of the yard and left him there. Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was unable to stand up.” Minutes later, Dr. Al-Bursh died.
Dr. Al-Bursh was transferred to Ofer prison after he was initially detained at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility. According to another prisoner quoted in the report, about one quarter of Palestinians held at the facility were medical workers. Dr. Al-Bursh was detained by Israeli forces who attacked the Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza in December 2023. Israeli authorities announced Dr. Al-Bursh’s death in May, but have not returned his body to Gaza.
This is far from an exception and is further evidence of how Israel is targeting medical workers in Gaza as part of its genocidal campaign there. According to a report released by Human Rights Watch earlier this year, Israel has arbitrarily detained medical workers in Gaza, and tortured and abused them while detained in Israeli facilities. At the time of the report, more than 300 medical workers had been detained by Israeli forces, severely undercutting efforts to address the health crisis caused by Israel’s genocide in Gaza.