(Washington D.C., January 13, 2025): In response to the U.S. State Department's January 3, 2025 announcement of a pending $8 billion arms deal for Israel, which includes air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles, bomb guidance kits, 500-pound bombs, bomb fuses, and artillery rounds, DAWN issues the following statement:
"The Biden administration is justifying this sale with its standard talking point that 'Israel has the right to defend itself' but most of the arms involved are clearly offensive," said Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN's executive director. "There is extensive evidence that Israel has used these exact same weapons to kill tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza since October 2023."
"The proposed sale violates the Biden Administration's own Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, the Leahy law, and the Foreign Assistance Act, all of which prohibit arms transfers to security forces that have committed violations of human rights and international humanitarian law," said Charles Blaha, senior advisor at DAWN and former director of the State Department office responsible for implementing the Leahy Law. "These violations are well-documented, including in the State Department's own public reporting."
"Members of Congress should urgently oppose this sale, including through Joint Resolutions of Disapproval," said Raed Jarrar, director of advocacy at DAWN. "With everything we know today, U.S. officials should be very concerned that sending more weapons to Israel could expose them to individual liability for aiding and abetting genocide."
