US: Biden’s Israel Funding Request Hits Early Hurdle
A rights group in the United States has raised alarm over President Joe Biden’s request for $14bn in funding for Israel, noting that the push contains language that suggests efforts to remove Palestinians from Gaza.
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) warned on Monday that Biden’s funding request could “bankroll” the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Concerns about Palestinian displacement were amplified after +972 Magazine reported it had received a leaked Israeli Government document outlining a plan to transfer Gaza’s entire population abroad.
The magazine added that a source in Israel’s Intelligence Ministry confirmed the document’s authenticity.
“The Biden administration isn’t just giving a green light for ethnic cleansing, it’s bankrolling it,” Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN’s Executive Director, said in a statement.
“Gaslighting Americans into facilitating long-held Israeli plans to depopulate Gaza under the cover of ‘humanitarian aid’ is a cruel and grotesque hoax.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected the Republican bill on Tuesday, accusing right-wing lawmakers of seeking to help rich people avoid paying taxes by siphoning money away from the IRS.
“It’s insulting that the hard right is openly trying to exploit the crisis in Israel to try and reward the ultra-rich,” Schumer, a staunch Israel supporter, said in a statement.
“The new Speaker knows perfectly well that if you want to help Israel, you can’t propose legislation that is full of poison pills. And this kind of unnecessarily partisan legislation sends the wrong message to our allies and adversaries around the world.”
But far-right Congresswoman Lauren Beobert welcomed the bill.
“We can’t spend unlimited money. We’re $33 trillion in debt. The money has to come somewhere and it should come from the IRS which is being weaponized against the public,” she wrote on the social media platform X.
Israel, which is accused of imposing apartheid on Palestinians by major rights groups like Amnesty International, receives approximately $3.8bn in US military assistance annually.
ALJAZEERA
