Top Black Democrat Rep. Gregory Meeks Wants To Block Bombs To Israel

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) is showing up in a way he hasn’t before. In two decades on the House Foreign Affairs Committee (and 28 years in Congress), Meeks has built a reputation as a steady hand who works the relationship rather than blocks it. So when the committee’s top Democrat—and the only Black lawmaker— announced he wouldn’t clear a $2.8 billion sale of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, it carried more weight than the usual congressional objection.

The package runs 40,000 bombs deep: 20,000 MK-84s and 20,000 BLU-117s— among the most destructive conventional munitions in the U.S. arsenal. Meeks was direct: “I therefore will not clear this sale at this time,” The Guardian reports. Meeks’ objection centers on real, unresolved questions about how those bombs are going to be used in densely populated parts of Gaza and Lebanon.

Meeks, who represents Queens, New York, has long been one of Israel’s steadier allies in Congress. New York has long been a pro-Israeli town, and Meeks helped move an $18 billion arms package through in 2024, according to The Washington Post.

However, since Israel has declared war on Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, the world has seen the destruction that such artillery can wreak. It also comes as a growing number of Democrats, human rights groups, foreign governments, artists and TikTokers have described what’s happening in Gaza as a genocide, a characterization Israel rejects but hasn’t been able to keep out of the debate.

The hold isn’t a guarantee, though. The Hill reports that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has bypassed this same review process before, clearing a $6.67 billion sale in January by declaring it urgent. Nothing stops him from doing it again.

But Meeks isn’t alone. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) placed a matching hold in the Senate, and when Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) forced a vote to cut off U.S. military aid to Israel entirely, 103 Democrats backed it—a number that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, evidence of how far the ground has shifted under a relationship that was once considered politically untouchable.

Kenneth Roth, the former Human Rights Watch executive director, said the sale could expose Trump himself to scrutiny from the International Criminal Court, according to BBC News.

As is likely, if Democrats retake the House in November, Meeks becomes Chair of Foreign Affairs, giving this moment more staying power than a typical procedural hold. 

For now, it’s a signal—but a notable one—coming from one of the most senior Black officials in Washington, is that the U.S. will not continue to be complicit in a lopsided conflict where tens of thousands of men, women and children have died under rubble. 

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