On June 30 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and 12 of her House colleagues sent a strongly worded letter to Secretary of State Pompeo expressing “deep concern” over Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s proposal to annex West Bank land.
A warning to Israel: there could be consequences
Unlike other statements issued by Members of Congress expressing opposition to annexation, this one threatened consequences should annexation go ahead.
“Should the Israeli government continue down this path, we will work to ensure non-recognition of annexed territories as well as pursue legislation that conditions the $3.8 billion in U.S. military funding to Israel to ensure that U.S. taxpayers are not supporting annexation in any way,” the letter stated. “We will include human rights conditions and the withholding of funds for the offshore procurement of Israeli weapons equal to or exceeding the amount the Israeli government spends annually to fund settlements, as well as the policies and practices that sustain and enable them.”
Ayanna Pressley’s principled stand
Among the signatories was Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley, who in a separate statement voiced her “vehement opposition” to Netanyahu’s plan which, she wrote, “would create apartheid like conditions and entrench human rights violations against the Palestinian people.”
She then made a connection with the ferment that has been happening in our own country since the murder of George Floyd:
“As the United States reckons with its own systemic inequities and engages in a national conversation about racial injustice and the value of Black and brown lives, we must be consistent in our calls for dismantling systemic racism. We must reject short sighted, oppressive, and discriminatory policies both in the United States and abroad.”
“We must stand up in the face of injustice and we must dismantle systems of oppression,” she concluded, after describing an increase in the demolition of Palestinian homes and the ongoing detention of Palestinian children.
If the US does one day withhold funds equal to the amount Israel spends annually to fund settlements, this would not be an entirely new policy: in 1993, 1994 and 1995 the executive branch subtracted annually hundreds of millions in loan guarantees to offset what Israel reported it had spent on settlements. The policy was abandoned in the wake of Oslo negotiations.
Democratic elected officials should get in step with voters
What likelihood is there that more Democrats in Congress will soon heed the majority of Democratic voters who support reducing aid to Israel on the basis of its human rights record, according to a September 2019 Data for Progress poll?
As we warned earlier this month (see the blog for June 5), their hands might be tied if Congress passes the US-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2020, which authorizes the $3.8 billion in annual security assistance that the Obama Administration agreed to give Israel annually for a decade beginning in 2018. This legislation states that before 2028 Congress cannot give LESS than $3.8 billion in annual security assistance, but it can give MORE.
We have a job to do here in Massachusetts to get the rest of our Congressional delegation to join Ayanna Pressley in her principled stand. And across the country, we hope people will contact their own elected officials and urge them to tie aid to annexation.
Massachusetts taxpayers alone forward some $128,495,047 to Israel annually, according to the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
Rather than funding Israeli apartheid, let’s use those funds to start redressing the endemic racist inequalities deforming our own society.
Nancy Murray
Photo credits: Hubert Murray