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Washington, DC — The US Campaign to End the Israeli
Occupation launched today a new interactive website--How Much Military
Aid to Israel?--that details the estimated amount of taxes that each
state and county in the United States will provide in military aid to
Israel during the course of a ten-year $30 billion agreement signed
between the two countries in 2007. The US Campaign plans to launch
data for Congressional districts and cities later this week.
The website also documents budgetary trade-offs that are involved in
providing military aid to Israel. The US Campaign to End the Israeli
Occupation found that this same earmark could provide per year more
than 364,000 affordable housing vouchers to low-income households, or
retrain 498,000 workers for green jobs, or supply early reading
programs to 887,000 at-risk students, or provide access to primary
health care services for more than 24 million uninsured Americans. A
detailed methodology for the derivation of these budgetary trade-offs
can be found by clicking here.
According to Josh Ruebner, National Advocacy Director of the US
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, “Instead of giving Israel an
average of $3 billion in weapons each year to commit human rights
abuses against Palestinians in its illegal military occupation of the
Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, our taxes would
be much better spent on unmet domestic needs. From both a moral and
financial perspective, we can’t afford to give Israel these weapons.”
The launch of the website comes one week after the Obama Administration
sent its FY2011 budget request to Congress, which contains a record $3
billion in military aid to Israel.
Israel routinely misuses U.S. weapons provided as military aid at
taxpayer expense to commit human rights abuses against Palestinians in
the course of its illegal 42-year military occupation of the
Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip in violation of
the Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts. During the Bush
Administration, Israel killed at least 3,107 innocent Palestinian
civilians, often with U.S. weapons.
The Obama Administration’s decision to include $3 billion in military
aid to Israel in its FY2011 budget request comes just over one year
after Israel’s December 2008-January 2009 war on the occupied Gaza
Strip, in which Israel misused U.S. weapons to kill more than 1,300
Palestinians, injure more than 5,000, and destroy an estimated $2
billion in civilian infrastructure.
The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation calls on the Obama
Administration and Congress to fully investigate Israel’s potential
violations of the Arms Export Control Act prior to appropriating an
additional $3 billion in military aid to Israel in the FY2011 budget.
The “How Much Military Aid to Israel?” website can be viewed by clicking here.