After Latest Raid, Tlaib Demands US Stop Funding 'Violent Israeli Apartheid Regime'

In the wake of another deadly raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the illegally occupied West Bank of Palestine, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Monday led renewed calls for Congress to cut off the nearly $4 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Israel's apartheid government.

Israeli forces killed at least eight Palestinians and wounded dozens of others in the early morning attack on Jenin that included bombardment by unmanned aerial drones. Israeli and international media described the airstrikes as the fiercest to hit the West Bank in nearly two decades.

Retweeting an Al Jazeera English video of an Israeli bulldozer destroying a street in Jenin, Tlaib (D-Mich.)—the first Palestinian-American woman elected to the House—asserted that "Congress must stop funding this violent Israeli apartheid regime."

The U.S.-based Jewish Voice for Peace issued a similar call.

"Last night," the group said Monday, "the Israeli military unleashed a full-scale assault on Jenin, surrounding the Palestinian city, preventing people from leaving and launching airstrikes. The state-sanctioned violence Palestinians endure daily must end. End U.S. military funding to Israel now."

The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights called Monday's attack a "horrific massacre" that was "directly funded with $3.8+ billion/year of our U.S. tax dollars."

Lamenting that "the Israeli government is completely out of control because it does not expect to face any consequences from the Biden administration," Council on American Islamic Relations national executive director Nihad Awad said that "this must change."

The Institute for Middle East Understanding, an advocacy group headquartered in Tustin, California, tweeted: "Israel has no right to invade Palestinian cities, and must be held accountable for its war crimes."

"The U.S. sends Israel nearly $4 billion a year in military funding," the group added. "Enough is enough."

The peace group CodePink reshared a petition urging President Joe Biden and Congress to "stop funding the ethnic cleansing of Palestine."

Monday's raid came less than two weeks after Palestinian militants killed four Israelis near Eli, an illegal Jewish-only settler colony built partly on land stolen from residents of the Palestinian village of Qaryut. In response to the killings, a mob of Israeli settlers attacked the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, killing one Palestinian and burning many homes, businesses, and vehicles.

Progressive members of Congress including Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) condemned U.S. military aid to Israel following what the two lawmakers called the "pogrom" in Turmus Ayya.

In May, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) and co-sponsors reintroduced legislation that would prohibit Israel from using U.S. taxpayer funds to detain or abuse Palestinian children in the West Bank.