US lawmakers urge maintaining Israeli aid without preconditions

Legislators sign a letter saying reducing or conditioning security assistance would be detrimental to Israel’s ability to defend itself against threats.

More than 300 US lawmakers, in a letter, have called on Washington to continue aid to Israel without conditions or reduction, a week after progressive Democratic legislators proposed a bill seeking to regulate American assistance in an effort to stop human rights abuse against Palestinians. The letter addressed to the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Rosa DeLauro, and signed by 328 lawmakers, urged Democrats and Republicans to fully fund the $3.8bn in annual security assistance to Israel that was authorised in 2016 as part of a 10-year memorandum of understanding between then-President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The move comes amid efforts by progressive Democrats to seek Israeli accountability for the treatment of Palestinians, including the detention of Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank.