Bernie Sanders pushes to block US arms sale to Israel: All you need to know
Al Jazeera
US Senate is set to vote this week on ‘historic’ resolutions of disapproval of a $20bn weapons deal with Israel.
Washington, DC – The United States Senate will vote later this week on bills to block a $20bn arms deal with Israel, an effort advocates say will set a precedent in congressional efforts to halt weapons transfers to the US ally.
Senator Bernie Sanders – a progressive independent who caucuses with the Democrats – introduced the measures, known as Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs), in September and announced on November 13 that he will bring them to the Senate floor for a vote this week.
The effort is unlikely to pass in the mostly pro-Israel chamber, but it has been garnering support from rights groups and a growing number of Democratic lawmakers.
Hassan El-Tayyab, an advocacy organiser at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker social justice group, described the upcoming vote as “historic”.
He said the resolutions send a message to President Joe Biden, his successor-in-waiting Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the “status quo is unacceptable”.
