Rep. Tlaib Opposing Iron Dome Funding for Israel: ‘I Will Not Support an Effort to Enable and Support War Crimes’

EXCERPT:

TLAIB: "Thank you so much, colleagues, I rise in opposition to this supplemental. I will not support an effort to enable and support war crimes, human rights abuses and violence. We cannot be talking only about Israelis need for safety at a time when Palestinians are living under a violent apartheid system and are dying from what Human Rights Watch has said are war crimes. We should also be talking about Palestinian need for security from Israeli attacks. We must be consistent in our commitment to human life, period. Everyone deserves to be safe there. The bill claims to be, quote, a replenishment for weapons apartheid Israel used in a crisis it manufactured when it attacked worshippers at one of the most holiest Islamic locations, the al-Aqsa Mosque, committing again numerous war crimes. And yet a one billion dollar in American tax dollars that my colleagues want to give represents to me an absurd and unjustifiable 140 times increase to U.S. funding for the Iron Dome. I firmly believe our country must oppose selling weapons to anyone, anywhere, without human rights law compliance. The Israeli government is an apartheid regime — not my words, the words of Human Rights Watch and Israel’s own human rights watch organization B'Tselem. I urge my colleagues, please stand with me in supporting human rights for all.”