Sara Haghdoosti, executive director of Win Without War, said
in a statement Thursday, "We utterly condemn" the administration's
decision to release a shipment of 1,700 500-pound bombs to Israel's military,
which has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza since October 07, 2023 attack.
The shipment was paused in May as Israel prepared to launch
its deadly assault on Rafah.
"We are dismayed because these bombs will almost
certainly be used to kill more innocents in Gaza, where indiscriminate bombing
continues and where a starvation crisis only worsens," said Haghdoosti.
"And if they are not used there, they risk being used to terrible effect
in Lebanon, where civilians would again bear the brunt of a disastrous possible
war between Hezbollah and the Israeli government."
"We are perplexed because the White House is, yet
again, using arms transfers to directly undermine its stated policy aims—both
to secure a cease-fire and protect civilians in Gaza, and to avoid a full-scale
war between Israel and Hezbollah that would devastate the region,"
Haghdoosti continued. "Releasing this transfer signals to the Israeli
government that, if cease-fire talks again stall, the war in Gaza can continue
and that a massive conflict with Hezbollah can begin, with no real US
pushback."
President Joe Biden "must reverse this decision, which
makes no sense as politics or policy," she added.
Biden, who is facing mounting calls to drop his reelection
campaign, was not asked about the reversal during his closely watched press
conference at the conclusion of NATO's 2024 summit in Washington, DC late
Thursday.
The administration's decision to lift the pause came
following what The Washington Post described as "a pressure
campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant, and pro-Israel lobbyists in the United States, including the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee, demanding the resumption of all weapons
shipments regardless of their lethality."
Last month, Netanyahu—who is facing a possible arrest
warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC)—released a video complaining
that the administration was "withholding weapons and ammunitions to
Israel."
The US is Israel's top arms supplier and has sent Israel
billions of dollars worth of weapons and other military equipment since
October 07—weaponry that Israel has repeatedly used to commit
atrocities in Gaza.
An unnamed administration official the US was mostly
concerned about the 2,000-pound bombs that were part of the initially planned
shipment, rather than the 500-pound bombs. The 2,000-pound bombs will remain on
hold, the official said.
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) joined Win
Without War in demanding that the Biden administration walk back its decision
to lift the pause on the 500-pound bombs, warning that "providing such
massive, explosive weapons with wide-area effects despite Israel's systematic
and deliberate deployment of such bombs in built-up civilian areas throughout
Gaza further exposes US officials to liability for war crimes
prosecution."
"This week alone, Israel used US weapons to strike a
school during a soccer game killing scores of children, and ordered the forced
evacuation of hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians from Gaza
City," said DAWN senior adviser Josh Paul, who resigned from the
US State Department last year over the Biden administration's continued arming
of Israel.
"Lifting a suspension on the delivery of 500-pound
bombs meant to prevent the invasion of Rafah, only to then send Israel those
bombs to enable the further destruction of Gaza City, is not only an act of
perversity but a lawless one as well," Paul said.
Raed Jarrar, DAWN's advocacy director, called on the ICC to
"investigate US officials for their complicity in the genocidal atrocities
in Gaza, insisting on providing Israel with some of the most lethal weapons in
the world despite full knowledge that Israel is using them unlawfully against
Palestinian civilians."
"The Biden administration is fully culpable for the
slaughter of civilians in Gaza, and should be held accountable for its role in
aiding and abetting Israel's shocking war crimes and crimes against
humanity," Jarrar added.
