Progressive Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan said she will not be voting for Democratic leadership's standalone bill allocating $1 billion toward Israel's Iron Dome, she said on Thursday morning, accusing the US ally of 'war crimes.'
It's scheduled for a House voter early on in the afternoon.
The bill was introduced by House Appropriations Chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro on Wednesday after House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer first announced it Tuesday night, backed by Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Schumer and President Biden.
Funding for the Iron Dome was originally part of Democrats' continuing resolution aimed at suspending the debt ceiling and averting an October government shutdown. It was removed after progressive Democrats, including Tlaib and fellow Squad members Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts threatened to tank the crucial measure otherwise.
But the morning of the vote, Tlaib attacked the measure on Twitter.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib was one of the progressive Democrats threatening to vote against a continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown because its original text included $1 billion toward Israel's Iron Dome
'I will not support a standalone supplemental bill of $1 billion to replenish the bombs Israel used to commit war crimes in Gaza,' she wrote.
The progressive lawmaker was referring to a provision in the text of the bill adding that the funds are being used 'to address emergent requirements in support of Operation Guardian of the Walls.'
It refers to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) rocket campaign in May that killed more than 200 Palestinians in the Gaza strip and destroyed apartments, health clinics and a building that contained an Associated Press office.
The IDF said it was targeting Hamas. The terror group also launched thousands of rockets into Israel, killing at least 10 Israelis in what they called Sword of Jerusalem.
Iron Dome missiles intercepted 90 percent of rockets fired into Israel during the bloody conflict,
