Beyond the killing and maiming of innocent civilians, beyond clear violations of both American and international law, beyond questions of fundamental morality, Israel’s use of American-supplied arms against Palestinian civilians harms America’s own interests by portraying it to the world – and the Muslim world in particular – as an accomplice in Israel’s 43-year Occupation with little regard to human rights. This perception, easily proven by the record, undermines American credibility and its ability to withdraw its forces from the Middle East and stabilize this crucial geo-political region.

Israel’s use of weapons supplied by the US is in clear and continuing violation of American law, particularly the Arms Export Control Act. Section 4 of the AECA stipulates that arms may be sold to allies “solely for” their internal security or legitimate self-defense. Israel’s use of cluster munitions in Lebanon in 2006 (at least a million unexploded pods remain on the ground); its use of flechettes – finned inch-long darts, thousands of which are packed into tank shells and released at high speed with devastating results – have been used in densely populated Gaza, causing significant civilian harm with no “defensive” element on the part of Israel; its use of F-16 aricraft and Apache helicopters for “targeted assassinations” in Gaza and the West Bank, frequently resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians; the use of Caterpillar bulldozers sold to Israel as military hardware and specifically designed to demolish Palestinian homes (24,000 of which have been demolished in the Occupied Territories since 1967); the firing of precision Hellfire missiles at civilian targets; the illegal dropping of hundreds of white phosphorous bombs which generate heat so intense it can melt glass on heavily populated areas of Gaza; the use of a new type of missile which explodes large numbers of tiny sharp-edged metal cubes capable of penetrating thick metal doors; plus the extensive dropping of DIME bomblets made of a tungsten-base Dense Inert Metals Explosive which destroys a victim’s inner organs and has no military value outside of killing civilians – none of these acts and myriad others can be justified under the provisions of the AECA.

ICAHD, an Israeli peace and human rights organization, strongly supports the call of the Jewish Voice for Peace to investigate whether US-supplied weapons were used by Israel to target civilians in the latest attacks on Gaza, and if they were to suspend arms sales to Israel in accordance with American law.

The billions of dollars in arms sent by the US to Israel (and billions more to surrounding Arab states) cannot possibly contribute to efforts to achieve a just peace and bring stability to the region. We believe they are actually antithetical to American interests in the region. Given the harm done to Palestinian civilian populations by Israel’s indiscriminate use of American-supplied weaponry and the collateral harm done to America’s name the world over, we hope that such an investigation will mark an end to American involvement in violence and war crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinians.