No Weapons for War: Dozens of organizations launch campaign to block US arms sales to Israel
Washington DC - More than 55 groups joined forces on Monday to launch the No Weapons for War campaign ahead of an expected Senate vote on limiting offensive weapons transfers to Israel.
No Weapons for War – organized by Demand Progress and supported by ActionCorps, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, IfNotNow, and more – formed as the Senate is poised for the first time to vote on potentially restricting arms sales to Israel amid the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
The joint resolutions of disapproval call on the Senate to block the transfer of certain military equipment worth around $20 billion, including joint direct attack munitions and tank and artillery shells.
Domestic law prohibits arms sales to countries that are carrying out gross human rights violations and restricting US humanitarian aid. There is ample evidence Israel is doing both.
Nevertheless, there are only four out of 100 senators who support at least one of the resolutions, according to the campaign:
- Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont)
- Jeff Merkley (Democrat-Oregon)
- Peter Welch (Democrat-Vermont)
- Brian Schatz (Democrat-Hawaii)
"For the last 13 months, the Biden administration has refused to use the leverage at its disposal to end to the war in Gaza and alleviate an ever-increasing humanitarian catastrophe. Despite clear evidence showing that Israel is committing war crimes and blocking humanitarian aid, the U.S. is still unconscionably selling billions of dollars of offensive weapons to Israel," Cavan Kharrazian, senior policy advisor at Demand Progress, said in a press release.
"Next week, senators have a historic opportunity to send a strong message to Israel by voting in favor of Sen. Sanders' Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, which becomes even more urgent now that [President-elect Donald] Trump, a notorious ally of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, prepares to reenter the White House."
Cover photo: IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire