The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) on Wednesday expressed grave concern about reports that Israel would be supplied with 50 new American-made F-16 fighter jets in coming months.
“We are deeply concerned that the United States is continuing to provide Israel with massive transfers of the most sophisticated and deadly weapons of war at a time when Israel is turning those weapons on a defenseless people living under its occupation,” ADC president Hala Maksoud said in a statement.
Israel has used F-16s to attack Palestinian civilian targets and cities under Israeli occupation in an effort to violently suppress the uprising against Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
“It is particularly troubling in that the [Bush] administration has repeatedly told us that they are investigating the use of these warplanes in violation of US laws,” said Maksoud.
“By rewarding Israel's use of extremely excessive force, including bombing by F-16 jets, against the Palestinian people, with shipments of huge numbers of these same warplanes, our government severely undermine its credibility and show a total lack of concern for the safety of the Palestinians.”
The ADC statement said the sale could be perceived as “giving license to Israel to take ever more drastic measures in enforcing its occupation.”
“This sale requires approval by the US government and we strongly insist that it be prevented. We reiterate our call on the Bush administration to suspend all arms sales to Israel as long as attacks on Palestinians living under Israeli occupation continue,” added the ADC president.
In addition to the indiscriminate use of live ammunition, commented on by observers such as Human Rights Watch, Israeli forces have used tanks and helicopter gunships against unarmed protesters.
As a result of these attacks, according to the ADC statement, over 500 Palestinians, mostly unarmed civilians, have been killed in the past 9 months.
The ADC also said that in spite of the announced “ceasefire,” Israel was also continuing its policy of extrajudicial executions of Palestinian activists through car bombs.
According to Jane’s Information Group, versions of the F-16 are in service with the armed forces of the following countries: Bahrain (12); Belgium (128);
Denmark (69); Egypt (179); Greece (77); Indonesia (11); Israel (234); Jordan (16); Korea, South (110); Netherlands (138); Norway (58); Pakistan (36); Portugal (20); Singapore (25); Taiwan (119); Thailand (36); Turkey (200); US (1,652) and Venezuela (21).
In March, arms control, human rights and Latin American interest groups urged President George W. Bush to block the sale of a dozen F-16 fighters to Chile, saying it would trigger an arms race in the region, according to Reuters.
Twenty-six groups said in their letter the sale was based on a ``short-sighted, militaristic'' view of US interests in Latin America, where Washington should be promoting development and democracy.
The letter noted that the planes' manufacturer Lockheed Martin is located in Bush's home state of Texas and said that the firm had contributed generously to his campaign – Albawaba.com
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