Who funds the genocide in Gaza, and who profits?

So my understanding is that if Israel was using these weapons, that bomb and that kit, that it was most likely paid for by me.

Me and all other American taxpayers, right? But since 2023, when the genocide began, the US has provided Israel with at least sixteen point three billion dollars in aid, and mostly through grants known as foreign military financing, that are used to purchase military equipment from US producers, right? So it's money we give Israel to spend, go shopping in the US for weaponry.

So it's US taxpayer funds given to Israel to buy weapons from American companies, which are used to kill Palestinians.

Andrew, this isn't really a question, but this means, correct me if I'm wrong, that I helped pay for the bomb that killed Ahmed's father, sister, brother, nieces, and nephews.

Unfortunately, the reality of the world that we live in is that the weapons makers, the defense companies, are the most heavily subsidized companies on the planet.

What I mean by that is that they receive more public money, more of our taxes, than any other sector of the economy, than any other companies.

Almost all of their research and development is paid for by us.

There is swathes of their staff that are paid for by us.

Their marketing teams are largely paid for by us.

It was estimated by someone you and I know very well, Bridget, Bill Hartung Who is, in my opinion, doyen of progressive arms trade researchers in the United States and has been for decades.

And Bill estimated that around thirty cents in every dollar paid to US tax authorities by an American taxpayer go to the defense contractors.

Thirty cents.

That's thirty percent of your taxes are invested in the companies that murdered Ahmed's family.

You know, when you ask the question, as we do in the book, "Who is responsible?" Of course, it is those companies.

It is the senior executives who run those companies and earn astronomical amounts of money, including bonuses when the companies are doing well.

And when are the companies doing well? When families like Ahmed's are being slaughtered.

And then there are the huge law firms that service their every needs and keep them out of court for their murderous actions.

There are the auditors who often cover up the constant and massive corruption in this trade.

And of course, there are the law enforcement authorities who do absolutely nothing about this organized murder that we fund and sponsor.

And then finally, it is the governments that not only subsidize these companies, but create a legal fiction around them to pretend to US taxpayers and the citizens of the world that there are some sort of controls over the use and export of this weaponry.

But more than that, these governments, and particularly the most senior political leaders, they set the policies that enable us to be participants in this conflict that Ahmed has described, I think quite mildly, as an abomination.

It was really clear really early on that Israel was systematically killing civilians.

And there are many policy guidelines that exist in the US, in the UK, in the EU, right through the UN, through treaties, that are supposed to govern the transfer of weaponry and parts and all these enabling material when massive human rights abuses are taking place.

Did any of this help pause or stop weapons flowing to Israel during this, this genocide?

Not for one second.