One hundred activists gathered Wednesday, November 20, outside the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to express their support for a Congressional resolution being voted on that same day that would block some 20 billion dollars military aid to Israel. The activists, among them Hadash members, Israelis, Americans, and dual citizens, organized under the demand “Arms embargo now!” They held signs saying, “U.S. funded genocide,” “Stop arming Israel,” “Arms embargo now,” and carried red flags.
Anti-occupation activists protest calling to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon, outside the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, November 20, 2024 (Photo: Jamal Awad/Flash90)
The activists then started blocking traffic outside the embassy and poured red paint on the road, symbolizing the blood being spilled by the supply of US weapons. One activist was arrested. In the same day, the US Senate has blocked legislation that would have halted the sale US weapons to Israel. Senator Bernie Sanders had introduced a joint resolution of disapproval, seeking to block the Biden administration’s recent sale of $20bn in US weapons to Israel. Moves to advance three resolutions all failed, garnering only about 20 votes out of the chamber’s 100 members, with most Democrats joining all Republicans against the measures.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas – it has waged war against Palestinians,” Sanders said a press conference held on Tuesday ahead of the vote. “Much of what’s been happening there has been done with US weapons and American taxpayer support,” Sanders continued, adding that the US has provided more than $18bn in military aid to Israel and delivered more than 50,000 tons of armaments and military equipment. “The United States of America is complicit in these atrocities. This complicity must end.”
A spokesperson from Oxfam, a British non-governmental organization that has been providing aid to the displaced in Gaza,said: “The Senate must vote to finally end arms transfers to Israel, as we see the crisis continue to escalate with warnings of imminent famine and entire communities being permanently erased in North Gaza governorate.” “Israel is blocking humanitarian aid and is meanwhile using US weapons in attacks that have killed thousands of children, aid workers, and journalists, destroyed schools, hospitals, vital infrastructure for clean water and more, and displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, where there is nowhere safe.”
A group of around 50 activists were arrested on Capitol Hill on Tuesday while calling for an arms embargo on Israel and urging US senators to vote for the bill. The demonstration of more than 100 activists from a broad coalition of different groups, including Palestinians, Jews, climate advocates, veterans and indigenous people, took place in the atrium of the Senate Hart Office Building one day before senators vote on the bill.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32258
