TO:
Senate and
House Appropriations Subcommittees on State, Foreign Operations, and Related
Programs
The
undersigned organizations are writing to urge you to oppose the President’s
FY2010 budget request for $2.775 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF)
for Israel,
an increase of $225 million in military aid compared to FY2009.At this time of acute economic crisis, as
well as from a political, legal, security, and moral standpoint, our country
should not continue to provide Israel
with this blank check.
Israel consistently misuses U.S.
weapons purchased through FMF to commit grave human rights abuses against
Palestinians and systematic violations of international law in its illegal
42-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East
Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. Some of those violations are documented
every year in the State Department's own human rights reports; far more are
documented by the United Nations and human rights organizations such as Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch.
These
actions include, but are not limited to, the deliberate killing and injuring of
Palestinian civilians; the deliberate destruction of Palestinian civilian
infrastructure, including homes, schools, roads, factories, hospitals and more;
the imposition of collective punishment on Palestinians through a siege of the
Gaza Strip and numerous travel restrictions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem;
the ongoing expansion of its wall/fence barrier in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem, ruled to be illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004;
and the expansion of illegal settlement activity in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem.
Most
seriously, during the Bush Administration, Israel killed more than 3,000
Palestinian civilians who took no part in hostilities, including more than
1,000 children.During its
December-January war on the Gaza Strip alone, Israel killed nearly 1,200
Palestinian non-combatants. Israel killed many of these innocent Palestinian
civilians with U.S. weapons, including F-16 fighter jets, Apache helicopters,
as well as aviation jet fuel, all paid
for by U.S. taxpayers.
U.S. foreign assistance programs
should meet human needs, not enable human rights violations.Israel’s
egregious human rights record and the devastating impact of U.S. weapons transfers to Israel on innocent Palestinian civilians should
trigger sanctions under U.S.
laws that would prohibit future military aid to Israel.
The Arms Export Control Act strictly limits the use of U.S. weapons to
“internal security” and “legitimate self-defense” and the Foreign Assistance
Act prohibits aid to a country which “engages in a consistent pattern of gross
violations of internationally recognized human rights”.
We
believe that Israel should
not receive any military aid as a result of its violations of these U.S. laws.However, there are still steps short of
cutting off military aid to Israel
which Congress should take to achieve U.S. policy goals.
At a minimum,
Congress should condition military aid to Israel on its progress toward
achieving the President’s stated goals of ending the siege of the Gaza Strip,
ending all settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and engaging
in a credible negotiating process that results in a just and lasting
peace.
Without the
United States using its
tremendous leverage over Israel
to achieve these goals, it is highly doubtful that Israel will change its poor
behavior.As the country bankrolling Israel’s military occupation and human rights
abuses against Palestinians, the United States is complicit in those
violations.Now is the time for
accountability.
Signed
by,
1.
After Downing Street 2. American Jews for a Just Peace 3.
American Muslims for Palestine 4. Code Pink Women for Peace 5.
Council for the National Interest 6. Council on American-Islamic
Relations 7. Episcopal Peace Fellowship 8. Fellowship of
Reconciliation 9. Friends of Sabeel—North America 10. Global
Exchange 11. Gold Star Families for Peace 12. Grandmothers for
Peace International 13. Grassroots International 14. Interfaith
Peace-Builders 15. Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions—USA 16. Jewish Voice for Peace 17. Latino
American Dawah Organization 18. Methodist Federation for Social
Action 19. Middle East Children's Alliance 20. Middle East
Research and Information Project 21. Muslim American Society
Freedom Foundation 22. Muslim Student Association West 23.
National Benedictines for Peace 24. National Immigrant Solidarity
Network 25. National Lawyers Guild 26. New Internationalism
Project, Institute for Policy Studies 27. Palestine Aid
Society 28. Presbyterian Peace Fellowship 29. Progressive
Democrats of America 30. Student/Farmworker Alliance 31.
Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East 32. United
for Peace and Justice 33. United Muslims of America 34. US
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation 35. Veterans For Peace 36.
War Times/Tiempo de Guerras 37. Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom—U.S. Section
Check out all the organizational endorsements of this letter on the map below, or click here for a PDF version of the letter:
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