Statement on US Military Aid to Israel
WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM UNITED STATES SECTION STATEMENT ON US MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL
July 2014
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Section (WILPF-US), joins with Amnesty International and the U. S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation to call upon Congress “to suspend transfers of munitions, weapons, crowd control devices and military training to Israel.” The U.S. is Israel’s largest foreign supplier and as such is morally responsible for Israel’s lack of accountability for human rights violations.
The U.S. provides $8.5 million in military aid to Israel per day (according to www.ifamericansknew.org), an unconscionable amount given the unmet human needs of our own people. To add insult to injury, the U.S. has never held Israel accountable for human rights violations carried out with and made possible by our military aid.
The level of government-sanctioned revenge and collective punishment of Palestinian youth and other civilians following the kidnapping and deaths of three Israeli teenagers shocks us. Violence has always been the currency of the occupation, and as international and U.S. support for boycott, divestment and sanctions to end the Israeli occupation grows, so does Israeli violence in order to maintain the occupation.
Most recently on July 3, 15-year-old Tariq Abu Khdeir, a U.S. citizen, was brutally beaten following the horrific torture by fire and murder of his 16-year-old Palestinian cousin, Mohammed. The U.S. State Department has called “for a speedy, transparent and credible investigation and full accountability for any excessive use of force” in his beating. Earlier this summer President Barack Obama had stated, “We will do whatever it takes to see justice is done when people harm Americans.” Don’t make exceptions for Israel when it violates human rights. We demand U.S. pressure on Israel by suspending our complicit military aid and financial assistance.
