Senate Vote Expected This Week on Blocking New Bombs for Israel
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, is calling on all Americans to urge their U.S. senators to vote “YES” this week on three Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs) introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders to block hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. weapons transfers to the terrorist Israeli occupation forces and government.
ACT NOW: Tell the Senate to Stop U.S. Bomb Transfers Fueling Genocide and Regional War
Yesterday, Senator Sanders announced he will force a vote on legislation to block these weapons transfers. In a public statement, he wrote:
“This week, I will be forcing a vote on legislation to block the sale of nearly half a billion dollars worth of bombs and bulldozers to the Israeli military.
“The extremist Netanyahu government that has committed genocide in Gaza does not need more military support from American taxpayers.”
According to reports, Senator Sanders is moving to force Senate votes on resolutions targeting approximately $658 million in U.S. weapons sales to Israel, including tens of thousands of bombs, as the Israeli government strikes civilian infrastructure across Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon.
In a statement, CAIR Government Affairs Department Director Robert S. McCaw said:
“The Trump administration is once again attempting to bypass Congress to rush 27,000 more bombs into Israel’s arsenal as it wages a genocidal campaign in Gaza, expands its indiscriminate bombing campaigns across Iran and Lebanon, and fuels a regional war. These are not defensive weapons. They are tools of mass destruction used to flatten homes, destroy infrastructure, and kill families. The Senate will vote this week, and every senator must now go on the record: Either stand with the American people or stand with AIPAC.”
These votes come just a month after the Trump administration approved a $151.8 million “emergency weapons sale” to Israel on March 7, 2026, including 12,000 1,000-pound bombs, by invoking special authority to bypass congressional review under the Arms Export Control Act. That decision shut Congress out of its legal oversight role and accelerated the delivery of weapons capable of leveling entire residential neighborhoods.
While not yet assigned bill numbers, Senator Sanders’ three Joint Resolutions of Disapproval would block multiple components of this ongoing weapons pipeline:
• Blocking the transfer of 12,000 1,000-pound BLU-110 bombs, weapons capable of leveling entire apartment buildings and civilian infrastructure.
• Blocking the transfer of 10,000 500-pound BLU-111 bombs, widely used in repeated airstrikes across densely populated urban areas.
• Blocking the licensing of 5,000 250-pound Small Diameter Bomb systems, precision-guided munitions used in high-frequency attacks across Gaza.
Together, these transfers represent more than 27,000 bombs and a full-spectrum resupply of Israel’s airstrike capacity at the very moment its military operations are expanding across the region.
Israel’s U.S.-backed assault has killed more than 75,000 Palestinians in Gaza, overwhelmingly women and children, while destroying hospitals, schools, and refugee shelters and contributing to mass starvation.
At the same time, Israeli military operations have escalated across the region:
• In Iran, since the February 28, the U.S. and Israel have killed at least 1,700 Iranian civilians, including at least 254 children, have been killed, with verified damage to hospitals, schools, and residential buildings across multiple locations in Iran.
• In Lebanon, Israeli bombing has killed and injured children daily and displaced nearly one in five people. In recent days, Israeli forces killed at least 254 people and wounded more than 1,100 others across Lebanon despite a U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement that explicitly required a halt to attacks on Lebanon. These strikes demonstrate how U.S.-supplied bombs are being used to violate ceasefire commitments and prolong regional war.
• In the West Bank, terrorist Israeli occupation forces continue deadly attacks on civilians, including the killing of entire families and healthcare workers.
Israel has also announced plans to expand its genocide beyond Gaza into southern Lebanon, with officials openly proposing the occupation of territory up to the Litani River and the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of civilians. Israeli officials have stated that entire villages will be demolished “like in Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” mirroring tactics used in Gaza, and more than 600,000 forcibly displaced Lebanese residents could be barred from returning to their homes.
Human rights organizations including B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have also concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.
CAIR notes that these weapons transfers violate U.S. law, including the Foreign Assistance Act, the Arms Export Control Act, and Section 620I, which prohibits military aid to governments that block humanitarian assistance. Instead of enforcing the law, the administration has chosen to bypass Congress and accelerate the flow of bombs.
CAIR previously supported earlier Joint Resolutions of Disapproval led by Senator Bernie Sanders and parallel legislation introduced by Representative Pramila Jayapal to block weapons transfers enabling Israel’s war crimes. These new resolutions represent one of the last remaining opportunities for Congress to stop the continued shipment of bombs.
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