Tlaib, AOC Call for Israel Aid to Be Cut if Annexation Goes Ahead

Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
AP/AFP Images

TEL AVIV — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) are among four House progressives calling for the U.S. to cut aid to Israel over its plan to apply sovereignty across parts of the West Bank.

The pro-Israel AIPAC lobby has lashed out at the four, which also includes Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Betty McCollum (D-MN4), saying the letter they wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “explicitly threatens the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that would damage American interests, risk the security of Israel & make a two-state solution less likely.”

The four said in their letter they would work to ensure the annexation would not be recognized and aid to the country be conditioned on Israel’s settlement spending and human rights record.

It says, according to a copy obtained by Jewish Insider:

Should the Israeli government move forward with the planned annexation with this administration’s acquiescence, we will work to ensure non-recognition as well as pursue conditions on the $3.8 billion in U.S. military funding to Israel, including human rights conditions and withholding funds for the off-shore procurement of Israeli weapons equal to or exceeding the amount the Israeli government spends annually to fund settlements, as well as the policies and practices that sustain and enable them.

It also warned applying Israeli law to parts of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley would “lay the groundwork for Israel becoming an apartheid state.”

Last week, 191 of 233 House Democrats in the House signed a letter warning of the dangers of annexation which AIPAC also opposed.

McCollum has accused AIPAC of being a “hate group” after it ran an ad suggesting “radical” Democrats are “more sinister” than ISIS.

The Trump administration’s “vision for peace” sees Israel annexing 30 percent of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley but in recent weeks administration officials have become more reticent to allow Israel to go ahead with the plan.

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