April, 14 2023, 10:05am EDT
Bowman and Sanders lead colleagues in telling Biden administration to stop funding Israeli human rights abuses
The U.S. government must “ensure that all future foreign assistance to Israel [...] is not used in support of gross violations of human rights”
Today, Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY-16) and Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) led 12 of their colleagues in calling on President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to ensure that U.S. tax dollars don’t go toward the Israeli government’s violations of Palestinian human rights.
Congressman Bowman and Senator Sanders's letter is the most forceful response from Congress yet to the actions of Israel’s far-right coalition government since it came to power at the end of last year. The letter calls for the Biden administration to, "undertake a shift in U.S. policy in recognition of the worsening violence, further annexation of land, and denial of Palestinian rights [by the Israeli government]." The letter further calls for assurance that, "all future foreign assistance to Israel, including weapons and equipment, is not used in support of gross violations of human rights."
The following lawmakers joined Congressman Bowman and Senator Sanders: Representatives Cori Bush (D-MO-01) , André Carson (D-IN-07), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ-12), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-07), Summer Lee (D-PA-12), Betty McCollum (D-MN-04), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-07), Delia Ramirez (D-IL-03), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12).
The letter was supported by 35 Palestinian, Jewish, human rights, racial justice, climate, and other civic and civil rights organizations. The full list of supporting groups is available below. The initiative also received support from a wide range of Jewish community leaders including over 135 rabbis and rabbinical students, elected officials, artists, writers, academics, and activists. A statement of support for Jewish community leaders is available here.
Jewish Voice for Peace Action Political Director, Beth Miller: “Congressman Bowman and Senator Sanders’s letter could not come at a more important moment. The Israeli government is committing brutal atrocities against Palestinians, including attacking worshipers at Al Aqsa mosque during Ramadan. The Biden administration’s milquetoast statements of concern ring hollow without action and accountability. It is time to ensure that no U.S. dollars are supporting the Israeli apartheid government’s human rights violations against Palestinians.”
List of organizations supporting Congressman Bowman and Senator Sanders’s letter:
Adalah Justice Project, AJP Action, American Friends Service Committee, Americans for Peace Now, Arab American Institute, Center for Constitutional Rights, Center for Jewish Nonviolence, Churches for Middle East Peace, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Defense for Children International - Palestine, Demand Progress, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), Detroit Jews for Justice, Dream Defenders, Ekō, Human Rights Watch, IfNotNow Movement, Institute for Policy Studies New Internationalism Project, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Justice Democrats, Movement for Black Lives, MPower Action Fund, Our Revolution, Peace Action, Progressive Democrats of America, RootsAction, Sunrise Movement, Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ), United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR), US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, US Palestine Council (USPC), Virginia Coalition for Human Rights, Win Without War, Working Families Party
Jewish Voice for Peace Action (JVP Action) is a multiracial, intergenerational movement of Jews and allies working towards justice and equality for Palestinians and Israelis by transforming U.S. policy.
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.
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Khanna—a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act, led in the House of Representatives by Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—made the case that you can recognize those stories without accepting the assassination.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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