Amnesty international condemns “unthinkable” US approval of $20bn in new weapons to Israel

Amnesty International has branded the US approving $20bn in arms sales to Israel a “disgrace”.

Nadia Daar, Amnesty International USA’s chief strategy and impact officer, said:

The Biden administration’s approval of weapons sales to the Israeli government amounting to $20 billion is unthinkable.

War crimes and human rights violations by Israeli forces against Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territories are ongoing. Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip remain at risk of genocide and are suffering from an engineered famine amid ongoing intense Israeli military attacks. Nowhere is safe for civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has continued blocking humanitarian aid, including food and medical supplies, from entering Gaza. The state has frequently bombed areas that it previously designated as a ‘safe zone’, underscoring that civilians aren’t safe anywhere in Gaza.

“If there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one”

In October 2023, US president Joe Biden reiterated the longstanding position that Israel is key to the Middle East-side of US empire- hegemony:

I’ll say this 5,000 times in my career. The iron clad commitment the United States has to Israel. Based on our principles, our ideas, our values. I’ve often said… if there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.

Biden also affirmed this in the 1980s, saying the US would “invent” an Israel to “protect [US] interests in the region”.

The $20bn in additional weapons sales to Israel is predominantly $18.82bn in F-15 type fighter jets, which can be used to bomb Palestine. Israel, meanwhile, has acted aggressively against any ceasefire with Hamas. It has struck targets in Damascus and Tehran.

With Israeli regional aggression and the weapons sales in mind, US talk of arranging a ceasefire could be little more than a PR exercise.

Indeed, Jewish Voice for Labour said the new weapons package meant the US has “ever deeper complicity with genocide”.

And Campaign Against Arms Trade said:

The US decision to authorise a further $20 billion in arms sales to Israel as it continues its genocidal war in Gaza, is disgraceful, immoral, and contrary to international law.

As well as breaking international law, the arms sales breach the US’ own Leahly Law. This prohibits military support to foreign militaries that commit human rights abuses.

In June, dozens of UN experts called on the international arms manufacturers themselves and their over trillion dollar financial investors to halt sales to Israel or risk “complicity in international crimes, possibly including genocide”.

In response to the US weapons sales, Amnesty International further stated:

In light of this latest action by the Biden administration, Amnesty International urges the U.S. Congress to take urgent action to uphold U.S. and international law by blocking the sales, including through the introduction of a joint resolution of disapproval.

Amnesty International also reiterates its calls for the U.S. government to immediately suspend all weapons sales and transfers to the Israeli government and for the implementation of an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

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