National Coalition Urges Congress to Vote No Today on 'Iron Dome' Missile Defense
Washington, DC - The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation today called on Congress to vote no on H.R. 5327,
the United States-Israel Missile Defense Cooperation and Support Act,
which would begin the process of fast tracking $205 million of U.S.
tax-payer money to Israel to purchase ten batteries of the "Iron Dome"
missile defense system.
Introduced yesterday by Rep. Glenn Nye (VA-2), the resolution follows
on the heels of the Obama Administration's announcement last week that
it would support U.S.-funding for the Israeli missile defense system.
"Israel
is portraying 'Iron Dome' as a means to shoot down rockets fired at its
civilian population, but in reality these batteries will increase
Israel's offensive capabilities," says US Campaign National Advocacy
Director Josh Ruebner. "Israel, like every other country in the world,
is entitled to self-defense. However,
there are scenarios when a nominally 'defensive' weapon such as an
anti-missile battery dramatically changes the strategic balance and
enhances offensive capabilities. With an effective missile defense
shield in place, Israel will feel emboldened to launch additional wars
of aggression, similar to or even larger in scale than those launched
against Lebanon (July-August 2006) and the Gaza Strip (December
2008-January 2009). In past Israeli wars of aggression, thousands of
Palestinian and Lebanese civilians have been killed by U.S. missiles.
It's Palestinian and Lebanese civilians who are in desperate need of
missile defense from Israel."
President
Obama has already proposed a record-breaking $3 billion in military aid
to Israel in the FY2011 budget. Israel and Egypt have special
exemptions written into the budget that allow them to spend a certain
amount of their military aid on their own domestic arms industries
rather than in the United States. In the FY2010 budget, this amounted
to almost $584 million for the Israeli weapons industry-enough money
for Israel to buy nearly 30 "Iron Dome" batteries with U.S. money.
The
Israeli military consistently uses U.S. military aid in violation of
the Arms Export Control Act, which limits the use of U.S. weapons to
"internal security" and "legitimate self-defense." Israel's illegal
occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip
is not "internal" and intentionally killing civilians and destroying
civilian infrastructure is never "legitimate." In addition, Israel's
systematic human rights abuses of Palestinians and its apartheid
policies toward them place Israel in violation of the Foreign
Assistance Act, which prohibits U.S. aid "to the government of any
country which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of
internationally recognized human rights."
Earlier
today, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a national
coalition of more than 325 organizations working to change to U.S.
policy toward Israel/Palestine to support human rights, international
law, and equality, urged its member groups and supporters to contact
their Members of Congress to vote "No" on H.R. 5327 later today.