The Bipartisan Vote to Fund War Crimes in Gaza Is a Moral and Legal Outrage
The $95 billion military and foreign aid package Congress passed was a remarkable feat of bipartisanship—and a calamity for decency and humanity.
That’s primarily because of the $15 billion in military aid to Israel. Unless President Joe Biden’s State Department recognizes Israel’s egregious violations of humanitarian law and withholds that aid, those U.S. funds will directly help the Israeli military perpetuate its assault on the people of Gaza—in which the International Court of Justice four months ago ordered Israel to “prevent death, destruction, and any acts of genocide.”
The Israeli military’s operations have caused more than 34,000 deaths in Gaza, most of them women and children. And it will get worse: Gaza is on the brink of famine, due in large part to the Israeli military’s blockading of humanitarian aid, despite the Biden administration’s repeated (and ineffective) demands to allow more aid.
Providing material support to Israel even as it carries out a war violating international orders makes us complicit, too.
U.S. weapons have played a key role in this devastation. The U.S. was already slated to send $3.8 billion to the Israeli military in 2024, which it’s given annually for years. The new $15 billion package multiplies that sum.
The Israeli military has used U.S. weapons systems, including F-16s and Apache helicopters, in recent operations in Gaza. Less than a month ago, even as the Biden administration claimed to oppose a planned Israeli military operation in the city of Rafah, the administration nevertheless approved a transfer of 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and other munitions that the Israeli military has been using to devastate Gaza for months.
All of this is a moral outrage—and also a legal one. And that’s why President Biden still has the power to stop this.
Following its January ruling, in March the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to allow the free flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. But that still hasn’t happened. Providing material support to Israel even as it carries out a war violating international orders makes us complicit, too.
U.S. aid also may violate our own domestic laws: For example, the Leahy Laws prohibit providing weapons or military aid to forces that commit........
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