how much money has the u.s. sent israel?

The United States was the first country to recognize Israel as an independent state, because settler-colonies make more money when they stick together. While American taxpayers have been forced to foot the bill for the U.S.’s colonial outpost of the Middle East, the U.S. weapons and apartheid industries have profited.

The Israeli government tests out surveillance technology and “crowd control” tactics on Palestinians and then teaches U.S. police how to repress Natives and Black Americans on Turtle Island. Learn more about settler solidarity in the Indigenous Struggles from Turtle Island to Palestine.

Profits off death and destruction will continue to reign over people unless we stop it.

In 2024, approximately 2.6% of U.S. military spending was sent to Israel.¹ That’s significant given that the U.S. military budget is the largest in the world—larger than the next 9 countries combined. In fact, U.S. taxpayers gave Israel more money last year than 89% of countries spent on their nation’s militaries.²

The U.S. military is the #1 institutional climate polluter on the planet, yet bears no responsibility to victims of its colonial violence and climate collapse around the world.

Footnotes

¹An October 2024 study on “The Cost of War” found that the U.S. military spent $22.8 billion to fund and protect Israel in just one year, including $17.9 billion sent directly to Israel (October 7, 2023 — September 30, 2024). The Senate Committee on Armed Services reported a budget of $883.7 billion for the same fiscal year. These sources suggest that 2.6% of U.S. military spending goes to Israel—at least, during the military’s 2024 fiscal year.

²Out of 147 countries reviewed, only 16 countries spent more than $17.9 billion on their militaries in 2024. That means 131 out of 147 countries spent less on their militaries than the U.S. gives in military funding to Israel each year.

The average individual taxpayer gives at least $25.25 in weapons to Israel each year. That doesn’t include U.S. military costs to bomb Yemen or build a fortress of an embassy in Lebanon. As Israel continues its expansionist genocidal project, Americans will be forced to pay—from their pockets and their climate future.

The people do not consent to complicity in genocide. We want healthcare, food on our tables and time spent with our families. Instead we’re working overtime to subsidize Israel’s free healthcare, education, and houses on stolen land made possible by colonial violence.

While our politicians tell us our government doesn’t have money for our own communities, the numbers tell a different story. See for yourself what your community could look like if Congress funded healthcare, housing, and climate care—instead of bombs to kill Palestinian kids.

In every genocidal project, language is the weapon wielded to manufacture consent from the masses. Language elicits feelings and unconscious stereotypes, which is why Western media will choose to call Israelis “hostages” and Palestinians “prisoners”; why an 18-year-old Israeli soldier is called a “teen” while a murdered 4-year-old Palestinian girl is called a “young lady.” Left unquestioned, this language weaves the dehumanization of Palestinians into the collective conscience.

The terms “foreign aid” or “military financing” or even “military assistance to Israel” are used to deliberately convey Israel as the victim. It’s sanitized propaganda. The truth is that the U.S. is selling military equipment like artillery shells and 2,000 pound “bunker bombs” designed to shred human flesh, suck the oxygen out of children's lungs, and even vaporize entire families.  

Next time someone asks “how much aid does the USA send to Israel,” tell them the U.S. aids and abets Israel’s genocide by supplying up to 70% of all weapons used to injure and kill Palestinians since October 7, 2023. We also urge you to correct people when they call this a “war in Gaza” when we know it is genocide. Language matters.