40 Senators Voted to Block Sale of 
Bulldozers to Israeli Government
Sin Without War

https://act.winwithoutwar.org/act/jrd-gratitude-apr26?akid=11067.236519.AZY75M&c0=jrd-gratitude-apr26.AYCQLB&rd=1&source=em20260420&t=8

(April 20, 2025) — When the Senate voted on a joint resolution of disapproval (JRD) to halt the sale of armored bulldozers to the Israeli government last week, a record 40 senators voted to block the sale. Here’s why that’s such a big deal:

In early 2024, just 11 senators voted to request a simple human rights report on the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza. Only 15 senators voted to halt a similar weapons transfer to the Israeli government a year later. That number grew to 27 in the summer of 2025 when, for the first time, a majority of Senate Democrats voted to block U.S.-made bombs and rifles to the Israeli government.

Now, the dam has broken. 85% of the Senate’s Democratic caucus voted to end U.S. complicity in the Israeli government’s horrific violence — in genocide in Gaza, in illegal annexations in the West Bank, and in an invasion into southern Lebanon.

Turning the tide on the Senate’s blank check approach to the Israeli government was the first step. Now, we have to win these votes to block U.S. weapons from reaching the Israeli military.

To secure the majority needed to achieve those victories, letting this group of 40 senators know that we see and appreciate their votes is a crucial start. When senators know groups like ours and people like you have their backs, it creates the political space for more lawmakers to join them in rejecting the status quo and ending U.S. complicity in the Israeli government’s violence.

ACTION:
Gratitude goes a long way after a headline-grabbing vote like this. Can you take a moment to join activists from across the country in both letting these 40 senators know they did the right thing, and also urging them to deepen their work to stop U.S. weapons sales to the Israeli government?

Even though we’re not satisfied with 40 votes, this leadership is crucially needed as momentum grows to end U.S. complicity in the incomprehensible suffering in Gaza and bring to a close the devastating regional war ignited by joint U.S. and Israeli military attacks on Iran.

Sen. Sanders’ JRD would have halted the sale of $300 million worth of D9 Caterpillar armored bulldozers, which the Israeli government has used to demolish homes in the West Bank and in Lebanon. Amnesty International found that in 2024 and 2025, Israeli forces used them to destroy more than 10,000 civilian homes, buildings, and structures in southern Lebanon .[1]

The Israeli military also, horrifically, used a D9 Caterpillar to kill U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie in 2003, as she attempted to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian family’s home – a crime for which no one was ever held accountable.

“No policy can bring back those taken from us by these actions—children and other loved ones,” Rachel Corrie’s mother, Cindy, wrote in an op-ed published last week. “But the Senate now has an opportunity to honor the memories of our daughter, other Americans, and thousands of Palestinian civilians killed, and to show that their deaths, and all the destruction, will no longer be condoned and funded.” [2]

All but seven Senate Democrats sent a clear message: It’s time to use U.S. leverage to end the horrific violence that the Israeli government is committing in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank.

It wasn’t enough, and even fewer senators rejected a similar resolution that would have halted the sale of more than 12,000 BLU–112 1,000-lb bombs. But this is the moment to double down and ensure these senators’ actions get the recognition they deserve.

Because you know what happens when a member of Congress takes a courageous stand like this against the status quo? Their colleagues on the opposing side will tell them that they’re wrong or not politically savvy. The weapons lobby will dash off checks to their political opponents. Powerful interest groups like AIPAC will attack them in the press and rally their supporters to fill their phone lines with criticism.

It’s up to us to make sure lawmakers hear a different message — one that can steel their resolve to continue working toward an end to the indefensible suffering we’re witnessing and help lay the groundwork to expand that coalition into a winning majority. That’s how our movement sustains and increases our power on Capitol Hill.

When members of Congress do the right thing, we need to remind them that we’re with them. Add your name to help us send these 40 senators a message tens of thousands of activists strong, thanking them for their vote and urging them to keep up their work to end U.S. complicity in the Israeli government’s violence.

The progress we’re making isn’t happening as fast as we’d like or as people in Palestine, Israel, and beyond deserve, but make no mistake — we’re turning the tide.

😎A year ago, getting 40 senators to vote against a weapons sale to the Israeli government would have sounded unthinkable. But last week, Sens. Alsobrooks (MD), Baldwin (WI), Bennet (CO), Blunt Rochester (DE), Booker (NJ), Cantwell (WA), Duckworth (IL), Durbin (IL), Gallego (AZ), Hassan (NH), Heinrich (NM), Hickenlooper (CO), Hirono (HI), Kaine (VA), Kelly (AZ), Kim (NJ), King (ME), Klobuchar (MN), Lujan (NM), Markey (MA), Merkley (OR), Murphy (CT), Murray (WA), Ossoff (GA), Padilla (CA), Peters (MI), Reed (RI), Sanders (VT), Schatz (HI), Schiff (CA), Shaheen (NH), Slotkin (MI), Smith (MN), Van Hollen (MD), Warner (VA), Warnock (GA), Warren (MA), Welch (VT), Whitehouse (RI), and Wyden (OR) all voted to halt the sale of armored bulldozers.

It’s time to keep going. Today, the choice between a continued devastating war and a deepening of the crisis, or taking a step toward saving lives and ending U.S. complicity, is clear. Let’s keep pushing Congress toward the path to peace and justice.

Thank you for working for peace,
The Win Without War team

1. Amnesty International, “Lebanon: Israeli military’s deliberate destruction of civilian property and land ‘must be investigated as war crimes’”
2. The Nation, “Let’s Finally Do Something About the Bulldozer That Killed My Daughter”