Does The House Have The Grit To 'Block The Bombs' To Israel?

Lawmakers returning from recess have a chance to do what their constituents are telling them to — stop US complicity in Gaza carnage.

By John Ramming Chappell and Annie Shiel, Responsible Statecraft

Members of Congress are wrapping up August recess in their home districts and preparing to return to Capitol Hill. And if public polling is any indication, they’ve been facing constituents who want to know why their taxpayer dollars are enabling the carnage in Gaza, and what Congress is doing to put an end to it.

If they are smart, lawmakers can work to end U.S. complicity by supporting the “Block the Bombs” bill, a proposal to block sales of bombs and explosive shells to Israel.

Introduced by Reps. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) in May, the bill, H.R. 3565, is the best benchmark for House legislators’ commitment to stop arming atrocities in Gaza. It is the only House bill proposed to do so, and it is gaining momentum, with 30 other legislators already cosponsoring.

Block the Bombs would prohibit the U.S. government from selling Israel the weapons most implicated in the decimation of Gaza: bombs, bomb guidance kits, artillery shells, and mortar shells. When used in populated areas, these types of weapons kill civilians and destroy the vital infrastructure that keeps them alive. Extensive documentation by human rights groups and investigators ties these weapons to war crimes in Gaza.

The Israeli military has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians in its nearly two-year assault on Gaza. Thousands more are dying from starvation and disease caused by Israeli government restrictions on humanitarian aid and attacks on vital medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure. The latest alert from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification — the world’s leading body on hunger — warned that the “worst-case scenario of Famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.”

All of this is made possible with U.S. weapons and funding. The Biden administration sent an enormous amount of weapons to the Israeli military in the first ten months of the war alone. Tens of billions of dollars in weapons sales have gone forward since, and the Trump administration removed the limited restrictions President Biden put in place. In February this year alone, the Trump administration notified Congress of over $11 billion more in lethal weapons to Israel.

These weapons kill and maim Palestinian civilians in Gaza. In March, the Israeli military dropped a U.S.-made bomb on a crowded cafe, killing at least 26 people. In April, Israeli forces used another American-made bomb to attack a displacement camp, killing dozens of Palestinians. U.S. weapons sales also send a clear political signal of American support for Israel’s conduct and the near total siege of Gaza.