Below is a joint letter sent to Congress by 56 U.S. Organizations Urging Members of Congress to scrap Section 219 of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, which would further deepen the U.S.-Israel military partnership. Download a PDF of the letter here.
Dear Chairmen Wicker and Rogers and Ranking Members Reed and Smith,
As you enter into conference to resolve the differences between the House-passed version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2027 (H.R.8800) and the pending Senate bill (S.4784), We, the undersigned U.S. organizations, strongly urge you to reject the entrenchment of U.S. and Israeli defense collaboration, which goes against U.S. national interests and values, and would expand the risk of U.S. complicity in, and exposure to, human rights violations, war crimes, and genocide.
Specifically, we are deeply concerned by Section 219 in the House NDAA and Section 1217 in the Senate version, which establish a new U.S. Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative aimed at accelerating joint research, development, and integration of Israeli-origin and jointly developed defense technologies into U.S. military systems and programs of record. This would expand U.S-Israeli military integration across some of the most sensitive domains of emerging technology, including quantum computing, AI and autonomous systems, cyber and electronic warfare, directed energy, and defense industrial base co-production, while expediting pathways from R&D into procurement.
Israel’s grievous violations of U.S. and international law and its other human rights violations include the use of U.S.-supplied weapons in killing Palestinian civilians, extrajudicial killings by Israeli soldiers, the systemic use of torture and sexual abuse by Israeli security forces, and policies such as the withholding of humanitarian assistance, other forms of collective punishment, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide. These facts alone should prevent even the discussion of deepening military ties, especially given the complete inability of the United States to apply existing laws, such as the Foreign Assistance Act or the Arms Export Control Act, that would require the suspension of U.S. military aid and arms transfers to Israel.
Many of Israel’s military technologies have been developed and used in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Israeli AI-enabled targeting systems, surveillance platforms, and predictive tools have been used in operations linked by human rights organizations and U.N. experts to war crimes and genocide. Israel uses AI-powered tools to generate lists of buildings to be attacked, assign ratings to residents of Gaza to determine if they are military targets, and determine when a resident is in a particular location. Furthermore, Israel is one of only 10 countries around the world that has neither signed nor ratified the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), an international treaty that prohibits the production, acquisition, and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons.
Despite the above, Section (b) of Section 219/1217 extends cooperative efforts to the U.S.’ most sensitive areas of military technology, including artificial intelligence and biotechnology. This proposal would encourage U.S. military biotechnology cooperation with a country that has refused to foreswear biological weapons and has previously been reported to possess a biological weapons program. States party to the BWC (such as the United States) are required to ensure that any biomedical collaboration with an entity that is not party to the BWC (such as Israel) does not in any way contribute to biological weapons programs, but this program does not include any such safeguards. Without sufficient safeguards, this initiative risks implicating the U.S. in the development of biological weapons and AI systems used for human rights violations, further eroding international trust.
The American people do not want American military integration with a country responsible for war crimes, international law violations, and mass killings amounting to genocide. Six in 10 voters now oppose the United States sending more military aid to Israel. The breadth of this opposition is also increasingly reflected among political commentators and public figures across the political spectrum, with criticism stemming from both the right and the left. Section 219/1217 works to hide continuing U.S. military support to Israel from public scrutiny and congressional oversight and involvement. Far from working to shift the U.S.-Israel relationship in line with American public opinion, this section encourages the direct use of Israeli-manufactured technology into the U.S.’ systems, which may render the United States dependent on Israel’s provision of such technologies, and make disentangling the relationship in the future ever more difficult. At a time in which American interests are increasingly diverging from those of Israel, and American public opinion is turning increasingly against unconditional support to Israel, creating new points of influence for Israel in the U.S. defense-technology ecosystem is exceptionally dangerous.
The repercussions of this legislation would be compounded should the conferees include the non-germane Section 622 of the 2027 Intelligence Authorization Act, introduced in May 2026 by Senator Tom Cotton, to the NDAA. Section 622 would limit the President’s ability to restrict America’s intelligence-sharing and military collaboration with Israel by requiring the President to identify and document a specific national security concern that necessitates any changes, and expand intelligence sharing and cooperation with countries that have normalized relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords. Governments have an obligation to ensure the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms when advancing their national security interests, including countering threats to their populations’ right to privacy or other freedoms. Intertwining U.S. and Israeli information-gathering and defense raises significant concerns given the recent evidence of Israeli espionage against people in the U.S., including government officials. In June, the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency raised its counterintelligence threat assessment of Israel from “high” to “critical” amid concerns that Israel was surveilling senior U.S. officials to obtain information about U.S. deliberations and policy on the Middle East. Additionally troubling is the well-documented use of inhumane Israeli intelligence practices, including torture. The United States must not tie itself to the intelligence practices of a country that, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, “has encouraged, tolerated and condoned torture and ill-treatment, at times with support at ministerial and functional levels.”
We strongly urge the conferees to reject Section 219/1217, as well as any legislation seeking to intertwine U.S. and Israeli defense or intelligence capabilities.
Sincerely,
A New Policy
American Committee for Middle East Rights
Amnesty International USA
Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
Center for International Policy Advocacy
Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity
Common Defense
Win Without War
World BEYOND War
Demand Progress
RootsAction
MPower Change Action Fund
The Internationalist Law Center
Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
Palestinian Christians for Justice
Pax Christi USA
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
The Oakland Institute
Defending Rights & Dissent
US Council of Muslim Organizations
ReThinking Foreign Policy
Disability Justice for Palestine
Peace Action
Global Ministries of the Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ) and
United Church of Christ
Catch Fire Movement
Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action)
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom US
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR)
Muslim Advocates
USA Palestine Mental Health Network
National Lawyers Guild
Palestine Legal
Taxpayers Against Genocide
United Church of Christ
Palestine Justice Network of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
50501 Veterans
IMEU Policy Project
AMEEN Action
Episcopal Peace Fellowship – Palestine Justice Network
Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas – Justice Team
Doctors Against Genocide
Just Foreign Policy
Alliance of Baptists
MANA
Christian-Jewish Allies for a Just Peace for Israel/Palestine
IfNotNow Movement
National Nurses United
Jewish Voice for Peace
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action
Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)
Adalah Justice Project
Friends Committee on National Legislation
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