WASHINGTON, D.C. – Palestinian Americans held a day of advocacy at the Capitol, concerned about new $2.8 billion in arms transfers to Israel reportedly approved by President Donald Trump’s administration.
The American Action for Justice in Palestine (AJP Action) group, which organized Tuesday’s event, announced that more than 300 constituents from across the country met with the offices of more than 100 U.S. lawmakers. They advocated on behalf of a series of legislative initiatives related to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, the surge in Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank, and efforts to use immigration law to stifle Palestinian advocacy in the United States.
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Jenna Essheikh, 19, who will meet with Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine and Republican Rep. Rob Whitman and other Virginia lawmakers and staffers, said she will speak with “very challenging and interesting people.”
“I think the main point we’re trying to get across to all the offices is that we’re all proud to be Americans, and we don’t want to see all of us using our tax dollars to go to war,” said Essiek, a native of the West Bank suburb of Ramallah.
Yaseen Shaikh, 22, who traveled with a delegation from Cleveland, Ohio, said she planned to meet with the offices of Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who is facing a tight midterm race against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, and the state’s other Republican senator, Bernie Moreno.
Both Republican senators have consistently voted against legislative efforts to limit arms sales to Israel.
“As I stand here among my colleagues, my people, standing shoulder to shoulder, I have nothing but hope and optimism that we will make a difference and that change will come,” Shaikh told Al Jazeera.
“We have to be instrumental in that,” he said.
Palestinian rights ‘catch up’ to lawmakers
Successive presidential administrations and Congress have resisted requests to condition U.S. military aid to Israel for decades, including during Israel’s recent war in Gaza, which marks its third anniversary early next month.
Approximately 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, and approximately 1,400 since the ceasefire agreement entered into force in October 2025.
Last week, U.S. media widely reported that the Trump administration had approved a $2.8 billion military package to Israel, funded by U.S. taxpayers, that included a 907 kg (2,000 lb) MK-84 bomb known to have already caused widespread civilian destruction in Palestinian enclaves.
The package reportedly contained 20,000 rounds of these ammunition and 20,000 rounds of a close variant, BLU-117.
Several Democrats have vowed to block the transfer, and Gregory Meeks, a ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, used his influence last week to at least delay Congressional approval.
Osama Abu Irshaied, executive director of AJP Action, said the new weapons package runs counter to public opinion polls, which show a majority support giving at least some weapons to Israel, and support for Palestinian rights is also surging.
Abu Irshaied said the poll highlights a new political reality for MPs.
“I think we are operating in this context right now: what is happening in Palestine, the genocide that has happened and continues to occur, the actions of terrorist settlers in the West Bank, the actions of America and Israel in the Middle East are catching up with us here, and we are paying the price for it,” Irscheid said.
While support for arming Israel remains strong among some sections of the Democratic Party, supporters have welcomed what they see as a historic shift in recent months.
Last July, 26 Senate Democrats voted in favor of blocking some arms transfers to Israel, marking the first time in history that a majority of Democrats in the chamber had voted in favor. In April, a similar resolution received a record 40 votes in the all-Democratic Senate, but ultimately failed to pass in the 100-member House.
The so-called House Bomb Prevention Act, which calls for a partial arms embargo on Israel, had 81 co-sponsors as of August.
Twenty-two Democratic senators also introduced a resolution last week that would force the U.S. State Department to investigate violence in the West Bank in which Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least nine Americans in recent years.
Abu Irshaied is optimistic that progress can be made even within the Republican Party, which has grappled with internal divisions over U.S. aid to Israel, with very few members currently willing to vote in favor of limiting aid.
A December poll by the IMEU Policy Project found that a majority of Republicans under the age of 45 said they would support a 2028 presidential candidate who “supports reducing tax-funded arms to Israel.”
“I think what we’re seeing now is that the dam within the Republican Party is bursting,” Abu Irscheid said.
“But the question is, ‘What’s next for Donald Trump, when he no longer owns the Republican Party and he owns the MAGA movement?’ I think that’s when we’re going to see even more rifts. ”
“It’s the same system.”
Advocates also focused Tuesday on what they called the Trump administration’s use of immigration law to suppress pro-Palestinian advocacy.
One of the policy priorities during the meeting with lawmakers was to reform language in the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which the Trump administration has cited as part of its efforts to deport individuals whose presence in the United States the administration deems would have an “adverse foreign policy impact.”
Among those speaking at the Capitol on Tuesday was Sara Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, who was detained by ICE in April and released in June. His lawyers have charged that Sarsour, who has lived in the United States for 30 years, was targeted on the basis of coerced confessions when he was captured by Israeli forces as a young man.
Although Sarsour still faces deportation proceedings, he said his time in ICE custody reminded him of his time in Israeli custody.
“The criminals (who detained me) still exist,” he said. “The same criminals who destroyed Gaza have murdered dozens (thousands) of children, women, men and families.”
Requa Cordia, who was targeted by immigration enforcement agents during the wave of pro-Palestinian protests that hit U.S. campuses in 2024, also spoke of her “dehumanization” during her 368 days in ICE custody.
“Then I realized that the same system that put me in ICE prisons is the same system that funds and arms Israeli military prisons,” said Cordia, who, like Sarsour, is still facing deportation proceedings.
“The same dehumanizing logic that forced me to be humiliated by the guards allows Israeli soldiers to kidnap Palestinians and throw them into the shadows,” she told the crowd.
“The same powers that are stalling my case are the same powers that are funneling billions of American tax dollars into bombs and weapons to incite Palestinian genocide.”
