On May 17, the bill was introduced and referred to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. It was cosponsored by House Majority Leader Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) and Representative Max Miller (R-OH). HR8445 The program went largely unnoticed, an odd outcome given its actual impact on expanding U.S. support for the Zionist program. In this case, it is through direct support for those who wish to serve in the Israeli occupation forces.
The purpose of HR 8445 is to make a series of amendments to programs normally available only to U.S. military personnel: the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and the Uniform Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). These modifications make something unprecedented possible. That means extending these programs to U.S. citizens serving in the Israeli occupation forces.
of SCRAis the result of the Bush administration’s efforts to revise the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act of 1940 (SSCRA), which was passed in 2003. Its primary purpose is to provide legal and financial protection to active-duty U.S. military personnel, allowing them to carry out the orders of the U.S. Empire with a little more peace of mind. Benefits of this law include protection against default judgments in civil cases, lower interest rates on pre-enlistment loans up to 6%, and protection against home foreclosure.
UseraEnacted in 1994, this law guarantees that U.S. military personnel can return to their original service after leaving the military (with some exceptions), while prohibiting employment discrimination based on past, present, or future military service. (excluding) is a multifaceted law.
In effect, HR 8445 extends U.S. legal and financial protection directly to U.S. nationals in occupied Palestine who support the ongoing colonization, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of the Palestinian people. This is a measure aimed at ensuring that The bill’s proposed amendments would formally include U.S. citizens fighting as foreign troops and provide further incentives for active participation in the Gaza massacre.
This effort is not necessarily surprising given that the United States is committed to protecting and advancing the interests of its colonial base across the Atlantic. The Zionist project has long been supported in part by American settlers. More than 23,000 Americans working at IOF As of February 2024. This number is An estimated 600,000 Americans Prior to October 7, they lived in areas under Israeli control, including illegal settlements in the West Bank. These settlers play a key role in advancing Zionist and, by extension, American imperial interests. It is not surprising, therefore, that their travel and settlement in occupied Palestine, coupled with billions of dollars of U.S. military and economic aid, has been consistently enabled.
This law also furthers the reality that American citizens are effectively encouraged to act as mercenaries for Zionist colonies, while simultaneously protecting them from the negative consequences of their actions upon their return. SCRA protections effectively override benefits traditionally used to recruit American citizens into our nation’s military, such as protection from foreclosure and preferential interest rates on loans for U.S. citizens fighting in their IOFs overseas. It guarantees that This is the US government’s way of telling Americans that the US will protect them if they risk their lives for the Zionist colonies.
Meanwhile, USERRA acts as a shield, allowing these nationals the option to return to their original place of employment when they return from supporting colonial forces overseas, but also protecting them from “discrimination” based on their previous place of employment. This prevents companies that want to avoid hiring, retaining, promoting, and extending benefits to people who actively participate in the genocide of Palestinians and war crimes that may be involved in it from doing so. In this sense, the USERRA amendment actually serves as an anti-accountability measure.
Overall, HR 8445 is one of many bills proposed to continue U.S. support for the Zionist project. While not a departure from the norm in this respect, the effectiveness of such a law is truly astonishing for those seeking to prevent U.S. involvement in the occupation of Palestine and hold accountable those who participate in it. . All this is done, once again, in the name of advancing the interests of American imperialism – interests that are inextricably tied to the Zionist settler colonial project and the continued survival of Zionism itself.
