Grill State Department officials for answers on why the U.S. would deliver these arms to Israel after the violations in Gaza.
New information obtained by Amnesty researchers this week confirmed a massive shipment of U.S. weapons was delivered to Israel on March 22nd.
The administration allowed the delivery, despite clear evidence of Israeli human rights violations, some amounting to war crimes, including the controversial use of U.S. made white phosphorous munitions over densely populated areas. That's the white phosphorous that sticks to flesh and sears it until completely deprived of oxygen.
You and I need the State Department to know that they can't just plop tons of weapons into the hands of a known serious human rights violator without getting grilled.
Ask State Department officials why the U.S. would deliver these arms to Israel.
Last month, our researcher from Gaza came to Washington, DC and met with State Department officials to present our evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza. They told us during those meetings that they were concerned and would review our evidence.
Refueling Israel with tons of new explosives.
Label from missile used in Gaza
Label on the remains of a missile that killed three paramedics and a child, Gaza, January 2009.
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The State Department has a moral and legal obligation to make sure U.S. weapons don't go to foreign forces with a record of committing gross human rights violations.
So, what happened? Did they decide against overwhelming evidence that Israel's actions were completely justified and didn't violate numerous international and U.S. laws? Did they put any extra restrictions on the use of these new arms?
With this new shipment just landing, we have a unique opportunity to find out exactly what happened to the State Department's review into Israel's misuse of U.S. weapons. There should be little difficulty in simply revealing the outcome of such a review. Yes we want a full embargo. But we need to be smart and push them one step at a time.
Ask the State Department officials in charge of U.S. arms exports to come clean on their findings of Israel's use of U.S. weapons in Gaza.
There is no way you and I can let tons of weapons land in Israel's hands with no questions asked.
We've got enough supporters to actually make something happen here. Send your letter now, and we'll let you know what happens.
Sincerely,
Edie, Zahir, Colby, Steve and the rest of the team tracking this issue
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