PORTLAND, Maine — Members of Congress are expected to vote Wednesday on six joint resolution disapprovals, or JRDs, that could halt the sale of $20 billion worth of American offensive arms and weapons to Israel.
The Coalition for Palestine in Maine and more than 170 Maine business owners and nonprofits are urging Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Sen. Angus King to support the resolutions when they are brought to the floor.
As the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues in the Middle East, concerns on how the conflict is being handled have escalated in the U.S. Senate.
Lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, are questioning America's involvement in the war.
For decades, the U.S. has supplied its NATO allies and non-NATO allies like Israel with military weapons. America ranks as one of the world's top arms exporters.
The JRDs would prevent the U.S. from providing Israel with offensive weapons like joint direct attack munitions (JDAMs), which essentially convert unguided bombs or "dummy bombs" to guide the weapons that are capable of striking precise locations.
In a fact sheet, Sanders called attention to several instances where Israel used JDAMs to target densely populated areas filled with thousands of Palestinian people, resulting in the injury and killings of mostly women, children and citizens.
According to the associated press, the U.S. has spent more than $17 billion on military aid to Israel since the ongoing conflict in Gaza began.
Federal policies like the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) require congress to regulate the sale and export of military weapons to foreign countries. Those government policies help ensure that weapons supplied by America for foreign wars are not used to violate international law, the rules of war, or basic human rights.
With the war in Gaza surpassing the one-year mark with no recognizable end in sight, Sanders calls bodies of the senate to reconsider America's involvement in the conflict.
Sanders' fact sheet notes he analyzed U.S. weapons sales to Israel, saying "several sales to Israel that violate the criteria laid out in the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Acts, as well as the Administration’s own Conventional Arms Transfer Policy and National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20)."
Members of the Coalition for Palestine in Maine wrote a letter to Collins and King asking that they vote in favor of the six JRDs proposed by Sanders.
The letter was signed by more than 170 business owners and nonprofits in Maine.
"It's vital that the laws that the United States uses to govern the way it sells weapons to countries are in compliance with not only U.S. but international law," Erin Kiley, an organizing member of the coalition and a business owner who supports the Pro-Palestinian movement, said. "As a person who is seeing the atrocities on a daily basis, it's hard to wrap my head and my heart around how everybody isn't screaming for this to stop."
Kiley said American people may be turning a blind eye to the suffering of Palestinians. She said she feels that America is responsible because U.S. dollars are funding weapons used.
"The violence that's happening is not in anybody's interest. It's not interest of Palestinian people. It's not in the interest of peace in the Middle East. It's not in the interest of Israel," Kiley said. "Nothing that's happening is making Israel any safer. And it's really not in the interest of the United States government. I mean, the fact that we are breaking our own laws, the fact that we are spending tens of billions of dollars to fund this violence."
Maine's Jewish Community Alliance (JCA) CEO Leslie Kirby shared in an email that the organization doesn't support any of the resolutions proposed.
NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to JCA and Kirby on Monday and Tuesday, requesting an interview. Kirby was not available for interview, but she directed NEWS CENTER Maine to a statement from their national affiliate, Jewish Federations of North America.
An excerpt from the statement reads, "Since the October 7th Hamas terror attack, Iran and its proxies have begun a multifront war against the Jewish state," noting additional attacks from Hezbollah terrorist groups in Lebanon and Houthis terrorist groups in Yemen.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas launched what some call its largest attack on Israel, killing nearly 2,000 Israeli citizens, injuring more than 8,000 people, and taking more than 200 hostages.
Since the attacks, Israel has continued to drop thousands of pounds of bombs on the Gaza strip, striking back at Hamas.
Although the Israeli government and Israeli army claims to be targeting Hamas and other terrorist groups in the area, Palestinian citizens, mostly women and children, are caught in the crossfire.
Starvation and the spread of diseases like polio have also been a result of war, and accusations of Israel blocking humanitarian aid continue to rise.
"The compassion that the world showed to Israel on October 7th was an incredible show of humanity. that was an opportunity for Israel to take a tragedy and accept that there was a struggle that they had to address. There could have been accountability to the perpetrators of October 7. There could have been accountability for Hamas that would have existed in the realm of justice, and I think that the entire world would have supported that," Kiley said. "Instead, Israel's response has been so willfully, disproportionately exaggerated and cruel. They have shown a gross disregard for civilian life. They have shown a gross disregard for international law."
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long taken the stance of continuing the wage of war until he feels Israel is secure from its enemies.
Biden's administration has stated the U.S. unconditionally supports Israel, maintaining that the state has a right to defend itself. With that unconditional support, the administration has criticized Israel, warning that the state must safeguard Palestinians and minimize casualties of the occupied territory's citizens.
The Jewish Federations of North America's statement notes that they believe passing JRDs that would limit offensive weapons sales to Israel could make Israel more vulnerable.
"Blocking these arms sales to Israel not only puts Israel at greater risk of being attacked by its enemies but also serve to weaken the strength of the US-Israel military alliance as they face growing threats in the Middle East," the federation states. "These resolutions only serve to embolden Israel and America’s shared adversaries."
The six resolutions would have to pass in the house and the senate and be signed off by the president to go into effect.
King said he still needs to review the language in the proposed JRDs.
"I am likely to support those resolutions that would limit offensive weapons going to Israel," King said.
Kiley said she can only hope Collins and other senators across the country do the same.
NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to Collins but has yet to hear back.