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US aid to Israel

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Palestinians protesting against Israel's occupation and its air campaign on the Gaza strip, shout slogans as they face Israeli troops near the settlement of Beit El and Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on May 18, 2021. (Photo: Ibrahim Attaia/APA Images)

For decades Israel has been able to confiscate homes, occupy land, and kill civilians. There’s never been much mainstream debate about this in the United States, the country that finances Israel’s atrocities with billions of dollars in taxpayer money. That has now changed.

Relatives of journalist Yousef Abu Hussein mourning after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City, on May 19, 2021. (Photo: Bashar Taleb/APA Images)

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is reportedly preparing to introduce a resolution on Thursday to the Senate “disapproving” the planned sale of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to Israel. This comes as the Gaza death toll reaches 230, including 65 children. In addition, 1,760 have been injured and 50,000 families have been displaced due to ongoing Israeli airstrikes.

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) during hearing on the Department of Agriculture Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2020 at the Rayburn House Office Building, in Washington, D.C., April 9, 2019. (USDA photo by Preston Keres)

By opposing and prohibiting funding to many of the Israeli policies of military occupation that violate the human rights of the Palestinian people, and by increasing the transparency around US weapons flows to Israel, Representative Betty McCollum’s latest bill is the boldest effort ever by Congress to ensure that the United States is no longer complicit in Israel’s denial of freedom to five million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“$600 for you, $500,000,000 to Israel.” When the COVID-19 relief bill in the Congress began circulating many commentators, including in the mainstream, have jumped on the fact that the massive legislation is bundled alongside other appropriations that include $500 million in military aid to Israel.