(Washington, D.C., November 3, 2026) – In response to President Trump's announcement that the United States will end its $4 billion in annual military aid to Israel at the end of this year, DAWN issues the following statement:
"A statement by a U.S. president that the U.S. will imminently stop providing Israel with billions in military aid annually is an unprecedented breakthrough that was unfathomable just a few years ago and would not have been possible without the decades of dogged advocacy of the Palestine movement," said Omar Shakir, DAWN's Executive Director. "Ending the U.S.'s annual provision of several billion dollars of aid, though, will not end U.S. complicity in Israel's genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people. The U.S. should suspend all arms transfers to Israel, including foreign military financing, foreign military sales, and direct commercial sales, as its own laws already require."
"U.S. military aid to Israel cannot end with a phone call, because Congress wrote it into law. Many members of Congress have signaled disapproval for U.S. arms to Israel, and it's time to seize this moment, where popular opinion is overwhelmingly on their side, to end military aid to Israel once and for all," said Raed Jarrar, DAWN's Advocacy Director. "Congress should immediately strike the funding floors from the 2027 appropriations bill and block any supplementary military funding for Israel."
"Israel and its supporters know the real prize here is not the aid, but ensuring that the flow of American arms continues. Members of Congress should not be fooled by efforts that would continue U.S. arms transfers to Israel under the guise of ending U.S. aid to Israel," said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, DAWN's Israel-Palestine Director. "Pentagon co-production removes many of the safeguards Congress wrote into law to prevent the U.S. from arming repressive regimes. Congress should ensure that the U.S. is not providing arms in any way to countries like Israel that engage in systematic gross violations of human rights."
Background
President Trump told Fox News on November 3 that he and Prime Minister Netanyahu "made a deal months ago" to end the $4 billion in annual US military aid to Israel by the end of 2026, adding that "we'll help Israel if they need it." The Associated Press reported that Israel would shift to purchasing American weapons instead. The $4 billion refers to the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding, under which Congress appropriates $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $500 million in missile defense funding each year through fiscal year 2028. Those amounts are written into appropriations law, and only Congress can revoke them. They are also a fraction of what Israel receives: the United States has provided more than $21 billion in military aid since October 2023, on top of weapons drawn from the War Reserve Stockpile, interceptor resupply, and intelligence support, none of which would apparently be affected by Trump's announcement.
U.S. law already requires suspending arms transfers to Israel, however they are financed. The Leahy Law bars assistance to any unit credibly implicated in gross human rights violations, but the U.S. has not enforced it with regards to Israel: the State Department has never found a single Israeli unit ineligible. Palestinian families, with DAWN's support, sued the State Department in December 2024 to compel it to apply the law to Israel. The case remains ongoing before Judge Ana Reyes of the D.C. District Court, who to date has rebuffed the government's efforts to have the suit dismissed.
Foreign Military Financing and foreign military sales both carry conditions that Pentagon coproduction largely does not: vetting under the Foreign Assistance Act or the Arms Export Control Act, humanitarian access requirements, and congressional notification. Prime Minister Netanyahu and his allies in Congress have for months indicated that they prefer, given shifts in U.S. public opinion, the less regulated Pentagon coproduction and integration route. The pending FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act expands US-Israel co-production funded through the Pentagon rather than the State Department. The provision gives preferential treatment under the law to Israel in arms and related technology transfers. If enacted, the provision would create a powerful new DoD office whose sole mission would be to advance Israeli-U.S. military integration, and would give Israel access to the most sensitive U.S. defense technology, make U.S. defense supply chains dependent on the Israeli government and Israeli companies, and limit congressional review of military support transfers to Israel.
