Nearly 50 activists arrested in Congress for supporting arms embargo

US police arrest nearly 50 protesters who engaged in civil disobedience protest in congressional building to demand that the US government invest in healthcare, housing, education and climate action instead of spending billions to arm Israel.The coalition, composed of climate, housing, Indigenous, Jewish, and Palestinian activists, demonstrated a day before the US Senate vote on the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD), which aims to block a $20 billion arms package to Israel.The JRD bill, drafted by Senators Bernie Sanders, Chris Welch, and Jeff Merkley, seeks to suspend the sale of "direct attack munitions (JDAMs) and 120 millimeter tank shells, among other resources, frequently used by Israel to commit mass atrocities against Palestinians," organisers said in a statement shared with TRT World."The US has already sent at least $18 billion dollars of weapons to Israel since the start of the genocide. Meanwhile our community needs like healthcare, food, and jobs continue to go unmet. We need to put people at the forefront of U.S. policies, not the profits of weapons companies," Ramah Kudaimi from the Action Center on Race and the Economy said."This week, Senators will clearly go on the record with their stance on genocide in the first vote in US history to directly block weapons to Israel. They must do what the Biden administration has failed to do and what the American people are demanding," Adalah Justice Project Executive Director Sandra Tamari added.In 2023, the National Priorities Project found that US taxpayers on average paid more than $5,000 for militarism, compared to $1,147 for education, $598 for housing, and $185 for transportation.