Westchester Progressives is deeply disappointed that Representative George Latimer voted with 314 Republicans to block an amendment to the National Security and State Department appropriations bill (H.R. 8595) introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) that would have cut $3.3 billion in aid to Israel. At a time when Israel is committing genocide in Gaza (1), carrying out ethnic cleansing in both Gaza and the West Bank(2), and maintaining a system of apartheid that has been documented by leading human rights organizations (3), we find it unconscionable that Representative Latimer supports sending the country billions of our taxpayer dollars. For his heinous crimes, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu (4). He is a war criminal who should be tried for his crimes—not enabled by our congressperson.
Continuing to provide military aid to Israel despite clear evidence of gross human rights violations ignores U.S. laws intended to prevent such assistance. Unconditional military support also emboldens the Israeli government to further violate international law, as it recently has by launching a war of aggression against Iran that has destabilized the Middle East and increased the risk of broader regional conflict. Although $3.3 billion represents only a fraction of the total military assistance the United States provides to Israel, it is still a powerful source of leverage. Rather than writing another blank check, Representative Latimer should use his vote to demand compliance with international law and respect for human rights. A meaningful first step would be to cosponsor the Block the Bombs Act (H.R. 3565), which would prohibit the transfer of offensive weapons that have been repeatedly used in attacks causing mass civilian casualties and widespread destruction in Gaza.
If Representative Latimer were truly committed to human rights, he would have joined the majority of Democrats in Congress–including prominent leaders such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA)–in voting to cut this financing of Israel’s military. Over 100 Democrats recognized that we have passed a threshold where we can no longer turn a blind eye to Israel’s violations of international law and the damage they inflict on America’s national security and our standing in the world. They also understand that a full 88 percent of Democratic voters disapprove of the war with Iran and a majority now sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis in the conflict.
When AIPAC and affiliated groups poured almost $15 million into George Latimer’s primary campaign, we questioned whether that unprecedented spending would influence his decisions in Congress. He insisted it would not. His vote leaves the public with two troubling possibilities: either that promise was false, or he independently believes that a genocide that includes the documented targeting of Palestinian children is consistent with American values.
Representative Latimer was elected to represent the people of Westchester and the Bronx—not the far-right government of Israel and not AIPAC. Every dollar Congress sends to Israel is a dollar unavailable to address the urgent needs of Americans struggling with housing costs, health care, education, infrastructure, and economic insecurity. We call on Representative Latimer to stop writing blank checks for horrific war crimes abroad and start fighting for the people who sent him to Washington.
Notes:
1) The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded in September 2025 that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. The same determination has been reached by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, whose 500 members — the world’s leading genocide experts — resolved that Israel’s actions meet the legal definition of genocide; the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention; Amnesty International (“You Feel Like You Are Subhuman,” Dec. 2024); Human Rights Watch (Extermination and Acts of Genocide, Dec. 2024); and the Israeli human rights organizations B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (Our Genocide, July 2025) — as well as leading Holocaust and genocide scholars including Omer Bartov, Raz Segal, Melanie O’Brien, and William Schabas.
2) Human Rights Watch found that Israel’s forced displacement of 90 percent of Gaza’s population is a crime against humanity meeting the definition of ethnic cleansing (Hopeless, Starving, and Besieged, Nov. 2024), a conclusion echoed by Doctors Without Borders and UN experts. HRW has likewise found Israel’s forced emptying of West Bank refugee camps to be a crime against humanity.
3) The International Court of Justice found in its July 2024 advisory opinion that Israel’s policies in the occupied Palestinian territory breach the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid. See also Human Rights Watch (A Threshold Crossed, 2021); Amnesty International (Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians, 2022); and B’Tselem (This Is Apartheid, 2021).
4) International Criminal Court, “ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I Rejects the State of Israel’s Challenges to Jurisdiction and Issues Warrants of Arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant,” press release, Nov. 21, 2024.
Additional Documentation & Resources:
Committee to Protect Journalists, “Journalist Casualties in the Israel-Gaza War,” continuously updated database, accessed July 2026.
Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), “Gaza Strip: Famine Confirmed in Gaza Governorate, Projected to Expand,” Aug. 2025; NPR, “Palestinians Are Starving Amid Israeli Blockade,” May 14, 2025.
Maud Effting and Willem Feenstra, “What the Wounds Are Telling Us,” De Volkskrant, Sept. 2025.
UNICEF, “Facing Life in the Gaza Strip with a New Disability,” 2024; Democracy Now!, “Children in Gaza Face Amputations Without Anesthesia, Death & Disease,” Dec. 28, 2023.
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Israel Has Made Gaza the Deadliest Place for Aid Workers,” statement, ReliefWeb; NPR, “These Are the World Central Kitchen Aid Workers Killed by Israeli Airstrike in Gaza,” April 3, 2024.
World Health Organization, “Health System at Breaking Point as Hostilities Further Intensify, WHO Warns,” news release, May 22, 2025; UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “UN Experts Appalled by Relentless Israeli Attacks on Gaza’s Healthcare System,” press release, Aug. 2025.