Block the bombs: Support grows for US bill to restrict arms for Israel

‘Long road’ remains ahead as bill garners 73 co-sponsors one year after its introduction in Congress, advocates say.

When Congresswoman Delia Ramirez first announced the Block the Bombs Act to impose a partial embargo against sending weapons from the United States to Israel, only 21 Democratic legislators joined her in supporting the measure.

That was June 2025. One year later, the legislative proposal now has 73 co-sponsors, a tally that Palestinian rights supporters say represents “historic” progress.

“While some thought that the bill was extreme, it has, in fact, become pretty mainstream,” Ramirez said at a news conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday.

With 73 members backing the measure to restrict arms to Israel, the bill blows a crater in the nearly unanimous bipartisan support Israel has enjoyed in Congress over the decades.

Still, the number does not come close to a majority in the 435-member House of Representatives.

Margaret DeReus, the executive director at the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU), said it is important to “mark the progress” of such a bill, stressing that more lawmakers should side with the majority of voters in rejecting unconditional aid to Israel.

“We are coming from such a deficit, where Congress has been so lacking in the courage to do what’s right, that this is actually a huge improvement from where we were,” DeReus told Al Jazeera.

While Congress remains largely pro-Israel, advocates have called on its members to better reflect the shifting views of the US public. Multiple polls show that Israel is rapidly losing support.

In a recent survey by the Institute for Global Affairs, only 16 percent of respondents agreed that the US “should keep supplying Israel with weapons without new restrictions”.

On Thursday, Ramirez stressed the need to bring her bill to a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives, citing multiple Israeli military campaigns across the Middle East.

So far, however, the bill has been blocked by the House’s Republican leadership.

The congresswoman also chided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump for their roles in the war in Iran, Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and the growing death toll in Gaza, where Israel continues to launch deadly attacks despite a “ceasefire”.

“Trump and Netanyahu will keep expanding the wars, so that they can continue to consolidate power, so that they can remain in office, and so that they can continue to profit off our pain,” Ramirez said.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib also emphasised that it is no longer taboo to question