OPINION | Sen. Murray's Legacy: Funding Gaza's Tragedy

by Jen Greenstein

As an elementary school social worker, doing my taxes this year involves a horrifying cognitive dissonance. How can it be that my tax money, earned from supporting students in Seattle, is funding the 2,000-ton bombs dropping on schools, hospitals, refugee camps, and homes in Gaza?

Over the past four months, the Israeli military has killed more than 12,000 children in Gaza. Israel's offensive has orphaned or separated over 17,000 children from their families. In early February, Sen. Patty Murray, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, voted to send the Israeli military an additional $14.1 billion — even after the International Court of Justice investigated Israel for plausibly committing genocide and ordered Israel to take immediate steps to protect civilians in Gaza. How can my country do this in my name, as a Jew? And how can it be that Sen. Murray — a self-professed "mom in tennis shoes," grandmother, and former preschool teacher — is signing the check?

While my tax dollars are sent to the Israeli military, young people in Washington State are experiencing increased food insecurity, youth homelessness, and poverty. Our public education system is plagued with constant funding cuts and staffing shortages. Instead of leveraging our tax dollars to support youth in the state she represents, Sen. Murray prioritizes sending billions of dollars to a government committing international war crimes against children.

I've done a lot of mental gymnastics to reconcile this cognitive dissonance, but it's actually not that hard. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has given Patty Murray $119,450 over the past five years alone. It is her third-largest donor. Even though Sen. Murray recently called for a cease-fire after over five months of constituent pressure, she has yet to use her power to require Israel to allow life-saving medical supplies and food into Gaza, where over half a million humans are starving.

In her recent speech, Sen. Murray insisted any U.S. aid to Israel is subject to the Leahy law, which prevents aid to foreign military units suspected of committing gross human rights violations. Yet to date, Sen. Murray has both pushed U.S. funding through and stood in the way of holding the Israeli government accountable (including voting down Sen. Sanders' resolution concerning Israel's human rights violations).

If Sen. Murray means what she says, she will stop U.S. aid and weapons sales to Israel immediately, including those being done without congressional consent, and especially those arranged with Sen. Murray's approval.

This week, Palestinian children are dying from starvation and dehydration at alarming rates. This is collective punishment, another war crime to add to the Israeli government's list. At my school in Seattle this week, children are struggling to learn due to lack of food at home and insecure housing. U.S funds used to starve and bomb Palestinian children could have been spent to fund schools, mental health supports, and housing. As an educator, a social worker, and a human being, it is my moral duty to care for children like those in Gaza just as much as I care for the kids I see every day.

Sen. Patty Murray, with her roots as an early childhood educator, has the very same duty. She still has a chance to cast off her donors, stop funding genocide, and support children in Washington State. My vote for Democratic candidates in the next election depends on it.

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Jen Greenstein is an anti-Zionist Jew. They are the descendant of many who perished in the Holocaust and firmly believe that "Never Again" means "Never Again for Anyone."

📸 Featured Image: Palestinians inspect their destroyed house after an Israeli air strike in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Jan. 14, 2024. Photo via Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock.com