A writer from Gaza reflects on Israel’s “defensive weapon,” Iron Dome.
By Muhammad Shehada | Newsweek | Sept 24, 2021
… the progressive push to defund the Iron Dome was quite simply a recognition of our pain.
Progressive House Democrats sparked a charged debate after they got their party to remove $1 billion of additional funding to Israel to replenish its Iron Dome from a congressional bill earlier this week. The Iron Dome is a defense missile technology that shoots down rockets, which Israel uses to defend itself from attack.
Some praised the progressives for an act of resistance to the near unquestioned support Israel receives from Congress. Others criticized the push to remove funding for the Iron Dome as wrong, given that it is meant to save Israeli lives. Still others pointed out that Israel, with a GDP of nearly $400 billion, doesn’t need and shouldn’t be receiving such generous amounts of U.S. aid that other countries need more desperately—an argument made last year by Yossi Beilin, former Israeli Minister of Justice, and Daniel Kurtzer, former Ambassador to Israel under President Bush.
The effort to defund the Iron Dome was short-lived; a Thursday vote on an independent bill ensured the funding would go through. But for many of us Palestinians, the effort in and of itself was a victory.
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