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Like me, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi attended West Seattle High School.

In September 2024, days before leaving to do advocacy work in the West Bank, she celebrated her birthday at Alki Beach — a local favorite spot for Seattleites. Not long after, Eygi was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers while observing a weekly protest against Israel’s illegal settlements.

Congress is now considering legislation that would bring the U.S. and Israeli militaries closer than ever before. This could be especially dangerous for Palestinians and others in the region, who have been on the receiving end of Israel’s violent expansionism.

Israeli forces have killed over 73,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, with over 1,200 deaths occurring since the U.S.-backed ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025. In Lebanon, Israeli attacks have killed over 4,300 people, with numbers climbing daily.

The case of U.S. citizen Eygi — and other Americans killed by Israeli forces — shows that if Congress passes this new legislation, they could also be putting U.S. citizens at risk.

AOC: US-Israeli Military Integration Measure “Existential Threat” to Democracy

Buried inside the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is Section 219, a provision that would dramatically expand defense technology cooperation between the United States and Israel. The idea is controversial — U.S. support for Israel faces growing scrutiny in the wake of the country’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza, which has been classified by rights groups and international authorities as a genocide.

Section 219 would expand joint U.S.-Israeli development of advanced military technologies, which includes artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and autonomous weapons systems. Unlike traditional military aid, which Congress reviews and appropriates each year, the proposal would create an “executive agent” to embed Israeli technology and defense firms into the Pentagon — from research and development to testing and manufacturing processes.

The Quincy Institute on Responsible Statecraft said that Section 219 would make the U.S. military more intertwined with Israel’s than with any other ally while making the relationship less transparent and harder for Congress to oversee or unwind in the........

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