Anti-Israel Activists, Lawmakers Largely Silent After US Waives Human Rights Conditions on Military Aid to Egypt

After the US decided to waive human rights conditions in order to send military aid to Egypt, many of the prominent advocates of an arms embargo on weapons sales to Israel remained silent, raising questions about consistency.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced it would override human rights concerns in order to send $1.3 billion in military to Egypt. This is the first time the Biden administration has sent the full amount of assistance since it took power in 2021, as a portion of the aid is conditional.

A review of social media posts by The Algemeiner found that many of the most outspoken supporters of imposing a US arms embargo on Israel have remained silent regarding Washington waiving human rights conditions on Egypt’s aid.

US Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), have not commented on the waiving of human rights conditions, despite making human rights as it relates to foreign policy a central theme of their respective terms recently. Major anti-Israel groups such as Code Pink have also not spoken against the decision on Egypt, despite their intense focus on foreign affairs issues.

The fact that such leaders and organizations have remained silent on the issue — yet been so vocal when it comes to opposing Israel — raises questions about whether their true motivations have been concern with human rights or if they were primarily political, performative, or motivated by a particular animus or a double standard toward Israel.

Some, however, have remained more consistent.

US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) spoke out against the move on X/Twitter.

“It should be simple: don’t sell arms to anyone who violates human rights,” she wrote. “We should not be sending this aid to one of the worst human rights abusers in the world. Not only have they failed to make clear progress on releasing political prisoners, they were caught bribing the former Chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.”

Omar was referring to US Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) being convicted in July of accepting bribes of gold and cash from three New Jersey businessmen and acting as an agent for the Egyptian government.

Human Rights Watch, which has been intensely critical of Israel both during the current war with Hamas and prior to it as well, also criticized the US’s decision. “The decision to roll through them might seem to serve a short-term gain but only adds to impunity for the Egyptian government as it continues its assault on its own population,” its Washington director said. “Rights protections for the Egyptian people are the point of these congressional conditions.”

Human Rights Watch noted that “in May 2024, a prominent opposition leader was imprisoned for trying to challenge President [Abdel Farrah el-] Sisi in the December 2023 elections. In recent weeks, Egyptian authorities arbitrarily detained and referred for prosecution at least four critics of the government for exercising their freedom of expression.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “This decision is important to advancing regional peace and Egypt’s specific and ongoing contributions to US national security priorities, particularly to finalize a ceasefire agreement for Gaza, bring the hostages home, surge humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in need, and help bring an enduring end to the Israel-Hamas conflict.”

There had previously been concern that Egypt was helping or at least not trying to stop Hamas from using the Gaza-Egypt border to smuggle weapons as well.

However, it was recently discovered by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that none of the nine tunnels Israel identified in Gaza as crossing into Egypt were currently operational, suggesting Egypt had taken some steps to stop the smuggling.

Claims that such tunnels were operational were key in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s argument that it was important to take — and retain — the Philadelphi Corridor on Gaza’s border with Egypt. The issue became a major sticking point in the failure to achieve a hostage deal last month.

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