The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today sent a formal message to U.S. Senators urging them to vote in favor of three Joint Resolutions of Disapproval introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to block hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. weapons transfers to Israel. A Senate vote on the resolutions could take place as early as Wednesday.
The resolutions — S.J.Res.136, S.J.Res.137, and S.J.Res.138 — are co-sponsored by Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Peter Welch (D-VT), and seek to halt approximately $658 million in weapons sales, including an estimated 27,000 bombs.
CAIR Government Affairs Department Director Robert S. McCaw said:
“The Trump administration is once again attempting to bypass Congress and rush 27,000 more bombs into Israel’s arsenal as it violently wages a genocidal campaign in Gaza that continues to kill civilians and destroy entire communities and expands its indiscriminate bombing campaigns across Iran and Lebanon. These are not defensive weapons, they are weapons of mass destruction that level homes, wipe out infrastructure, and take innocent lives. At the same time, our government diverts hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars away from struggling American families and into more destruction abroad. Congress must act now. Every senator must go on the record: stand with the American people, uphold U.S. law, and protect civilian lives by voting YES on these resolutions.”
CAIR is calling on all Senators to vote YES on S.J.Res.136, S.J.Res.137, and S.J.Res.138 and to take immediate action to block the transfer of additional U.S. weapons that risk further escalating violence and humanitarian suffering.
Last week, CAIR issued a nationwide action alert urging Americans to contact their Senators and demand support for Senator Bernie Sanders’ Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to block the transfer of tens of thousands of U.S.-manufactured bombs to Israel.
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, more than 1,300 people have been killed by U.S.-Israeli strikes, including one attack on an all-girls school that killed more than 180 schoolgirls and faculty, alongside environmental devastation in Tehran.
- In Lebanon, Israeli bombing has killed and injured children daily and displaced nearly one in five people, raising fears the country could become the next Gaza.
- In the West Bank, terrorist Israeli occupation forces continue deadly attacks on civilians, including the killing of entire families and healthcare workers.
Human rights organizations including B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have 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.
Earlier this month, CAIR called on Congress to force an end to the U.S.-Israel war on Iran after former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent resigned and admitted that the war was initiated “due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com