$17 Billion in Suffering

Congressmember Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) joined 366 members of Congress on April 24, to vote for a $26 billion Israel supplemental war spending bill, despite overwhelming public support for a cease fire in Gaza.

It was a sad day for the Central Coast, represented also by Jimmy Panetta (D-SLO) and Julia Brownley (D-Ventura), as all three refused to join the 58 dissenting lawmakers. Since October 7, Israel, subsidized by the U.S., has killed or maimed over 100,000 Palestinians; bombed playgrounds, hospitals, and escape routes; and destroyed every university in Gaza in a crime called scholasticide — destruction of all centers of knowledge to erase a people’s history.

Five days before the vote, dozens of antiwar activists picketed Raytheon in Goleta, where employees labor for a company that supplies Israel with missiles, bunker buster bombs, and night-vision goggles. One day before the vote, activists picketed and rallied at Carbajal’s Santa Barbara office, to deliver a letter urging him to reconsider his support for Israel’s war on Gaza, now under investigation by the International Court of Justice, where South Africa alleges Israel has violated the UN Convention on Genocide.

Carbajal may tout the supplemental’s $9 billion dollars of humanitarian aid, but only a sliver will be sliced for Palestinians and what’s the point of offering crumbs before bombs? When lawmakers in Congress betray their constituents to bend to war profiteers and lobbyists, one is left wondering how many children must be murdered before enough is enough.