Congress of the United States
House Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs

Dear Chair Barbara Lee and Ranking Member Hal Rogers:

We, the undersigned United States voters, write to urge that our government end aid to Israel now. There is no excuse for continuing U.S. support for this apartheid regime.

As soon as the most recent slaughter in Gaza ceased, and the world’s attention became less intense, Israel launched a campaign of retribution against Palestinians for daring to protest earlier in the month. “Operation Law and Order” swept through Israel and into the West Bank making mass arrests of Palestinians to “settle scores” and “close accounts”. And yet, U.S. leadership was silent as this was going on. How can we do this?

This new Administration has stated that it intends to place “democracy and human rights at the center of our foreign policy”. What rank hypocrisy this represents when it comes to Israel! As long as the U.S. continues to aid Israel with no questions asked Israel’s brutal oppression of Palestinians will continue.

Israel has been illegally taking Palestinian land for more than 50 years to build Jewish-only settlements while denying Palestinians in the West Bank the right to build or even maintain their homes and other structures. Hoping that fear and hardship will cause Palestinians to abandon their land, Jewish settlers in the countryside attack Palestinians and burn their crops and fields causing costly damage, loss of livelihood and the terror of violent harassment. Often this happens with the assistance of Israeli authorities. How can the U.S. honestly pretend to not see and understand this for what it is? Considering all the aid and geopolitical support given to Israel for decades, the U.S. cannot pretend to not be directly involved in Israel’s atrocities. Our country is not an innocent bystander.

Unless the U.S. takes action now Israel will continue to expel Palestinians from their longtime homes in East Jerusalem and convert them to more Jewish-only settler housing. Arieh King, a Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem has made it clear this is part of a wider strategy of “installing layers of Jews” throughout East Jerusalem. This policy, Mr. King said, “is the way to secure the future of Jerusalem as a Jewish capital for the Jewish people,” so that future peace negotiators will not “try to divide Jerusalem and give part of Jerusalem to our enemy” (New York Times 5/12/21). This explicit municipal policy in Jerusalem is essentially explicit national policy as well. Pursuant to Israel’s Nation State Law adopted in 2018 Jews alone are recognized as having supremacy over all others.

Unfortunately, recent efforts in the House and Senate to open a public debate on U.S. policy on Israel, which arose in connection with the President’s proposed approval of the sale of $735 million of additional arms to Israel, were disregarded by the President himself. Rather than giving more time for discussion in Congress, and despite the introduction of resolutions of disapproval in both chambers prior to the deadline, he immediately approved the sale on the expiration of the unrealistically short 15-day timeline for final Congressional action.

Chair Lee and Ranking Member Rogers, the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee (SFORP) has the ability to take the Administration’s new and honorable foreign policy goals closer to reality. Starting with this very next U.S. budget the required action must be termination of U.S. aid unless and until Palestinians have equal rights to Jewish Israelis.

A recent letter (https://teddeutch.house.gov/uploadedfiles/2021.04.21_mou_letter_delauro_granger_signed.pdf ) from 330 Members of the House addressed to Appropriations Chair DeLauro and Ranking Member Granger (“Members’ Letter”) used the usual tired tropes, referenced for generations, to urge that U.S. support to Israel continue unconditionally. We strongly disagree.

Many of the stated reasons in the Members’ Letter for continuing aid are simply not valid. Israel does not need protection. After more than half a century of U.S. military aid Israel now has one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world. U.S. aid also helped Israel build its own domestic military industries such that it now ranks as one of the top global exporters of arms and surveillance tools in the world and Israel is the only country in the region to possess nuclear arms.

Moreover, in the decades of receiving U.S. aid Israel has become a wealthy economy, equivalent to several in the European Union. Israel does not need our help. Why then does the U.S. reflexively continue to fund Israel and its abhorrent behavior in amounts that exceed $3.8 billion per year? And now Israel says it needs $1 billion more. This is outrageous!

It is particularly striking that the Members’ Letter makes no mention of the Palestinian people at all. Not a single word recognizes their humanity. It is as if the Members want us to pretend that Palestinians do not exist in their homeland. It is as if we should ignore the nightmare that Israel has made Gaza for 2,000,000 people who have no way to escape Israel’s violence. During the recent nightly pounding from Israeli bombs an English teacher in Gaza reported it this way, “I can't even begin to describe the horrors of last night. In the morning, each morning, I can't believe we made out alive." Many families didn’t make it out alive.

For the sake of honesty, morality and the universal value of human rights, U.S. aid to Israel must end.

Respectfully submitted.