Friends,
J Street champions in the House yesterday released a letter to President Biden – signed by 77 Members of Congress – urging the White House to uphold US law and make clear that the US will not tolerate the deteriorating humanitarian crisis or the blocking of life-saving aid deliveries in Gaza.
💪 It follows a November letter signed by 88 members calling for sanctions on settlement groups and extremist ministers responsible for fueling violence in the West Bank – pressure which resulted in groundbreaking sanctions against Israel's largest settlement builder.
🙏 Thank you to everyone who has signed petitions, made calls and reached out to their Members of Congress.
📝 With Netanyahu still failing to meet Biden’s aid benchmarks, the letter makes clear that these representatives want action: “Our concerns remain urgent and largely unresolved, including arbitrary restrictions on humanitarian aid and insufficient delivery routes, among others. As a result, Gaza’s civilian population is facing dire famine.”
🗣️ Our message: The Netanyahu government’s continued obstruction of humanitarian aid is a searing violation of our Jewish values that brings hostages no closer to freedom, nor Hamas any closer to defeat. It’s inflicting generational harm on families in Gaza and doing lasting damage to Israel’s standing, including among the next generation of Jewish Americans.
➡️ As we continue to make clear, US laws clearly prohibit unrestricted weapons transfers to partner governments found to be obstructing humanitarian aid, and outline a process for assessments, enforcement and exemptions in such cases: The President must follow the law.
🚨 As long as President Biden is in power, we’ll continue our campaign for the White House to take further steps – a UN resolution, additional sanctions, action on the hostage crisis and reinforcing domestic laws – to get hostages out, get aid in and shackle far-right extremists.
Thank you, once again, for continuing to stand with us as we fight for our vision of a just, secure, democratic and proud Israel that’s a homeland not just for the Jewish people, but for our Jewish values as well.
You can find the full letter and a full list of congressional signers here.
Jen Abrahamson
Vice President of Communications, J Street
