The genocidal horrors inflicted by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) during the most recent atrocities, specifically the Rafah Tent Massacre and a school run by the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, can now be traced back to Missouri manufacturing facilities that produced the weapons used in these unconscionable acts.
A new project, titled ‘Mapping Genocide’, in a groundbreaking investigation reveals that these dystopian weapons of mass destruction are being assembled in our own backyard, in Missouri, and as of this year are now being fast-tracked and increasingly deployed by israel’s murderous regime.
“Boeing and the Air Force confirm on their websites that the munition is currently only compatible with Boeing’s F-15E, which the U.S. sells to Israel,” wrote Mapping Genocide in collaboration with numerous St. Louis organizations and Dissenters, a national youth-led anti-militarist organization.
“The Small Diameter Bomb and its carrier are made in Boeing’s St. Charles (Greater STL) facilities. The Berkeley (STL County) facility boasts F-15s as a ‘high precision strike solution’ in their ‘Air Dominance Portfolio.’ THE BERKELEY FACILITY IS LEASED FROM ST. LOUIS CITY.”
This was the Rafah Massacre last night.
— Khalissee (@Kahlissee) May 27, 2024
This will be written in history books.
Generations to come will ask why we didn't stop babies being burnt alive. pic.twitter.com/ZgfC2ijMfB
This is my mother and Jinan. Jinan, 6 years old, killed her mother, father, and sister in the latest attack (the Rafah massacre). She has no one left!Isn't it time to stop this killing Jinan is suffering from sever psychslogical problem the necessary support to continue her life pic.twitter.com/v6CGSUKKW9
— dr.Hosam hammouda (@ho79918) June 2, 2024
Their post continues with a searing statement, noting “All the unfathomable images coming out from May 26 – the charred bodies, the decapitated children – are products of the Boeing Company in St. Louis, Missouri. ST. LOUIS WORKERS’ LABOR IS USED TO CREATE TOOLS OF GENOCIDE AND TO FACILITATE WAR CRIMES.”
The recent revelations mean we now see not only the complicity of the broader U.S. government in this genocide, and not even only the weapons manufacturers themselves, but the actual, specific facilities where these weapons are being produced.
Detailed analysis and evidence presented by major news outlets such as CNN, the New York Times, and Al Jazeera have confirmed the use of the Boeing GBU-39 “Small” Diameter Bomb I (SDB I) in these attacks. The weapons were identified by their unique structural features, documentation including the nameplate and distinct back fins which were preserved and photographed at the scene.
There have been ‘more than 15,000 Gazan children murdered by Israel since October, a toll that would have been unimaginable without the seemingly bottomless supply of US bombs. A new report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor shows that Israel dropped over 70,000 tons of US bombs on Gaza in 200 days, which surpasses that of the the bombings in Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined in World War II. It’s also twenty times more ordinance than the US dropped on Iraq in six years of war.”
Canadian Dimension, One-year-old Ahmad Al-Najjar was beheaded by Israel—with a US bomb
The damning evidence does not end there. Public records, defense contracts, and job listings link the production of the GBU-39, its BRU-61 carrier, and the F-15E directly to Boeing’s St. Louis and St. Charles facilities.
“Experts note that a significant increase in Israel’s use of the GBU-39 bomb this year compared to earlier stages of the conflict, when it was used in only 10% of airstrikes against Gaza. Despite being smaller and designed for precision, these bombs still cause severe civilian casualties,” noted GV Wire.
This is the home of the Abdelal family in Gaza. It was decimated by a GBU-39 bomb launched from an Israeli aircraft on April 20. 16 children & 4 women lost their lives. Remember the Rafah massacre is an everyday occurrence in Gaza. The media doesn't report every single massacre. pic.twitter.com/cUboaT2IqG
— Maher Arar (@ArarMaher) June 5, 2024
In a recent investigation, CNN writes that the “Israeli airstrike on a United Nations-run school in central Gaza… was conducted with a US-made weapon,” then quoting Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosive ordinance disposal technician who observes that “you can determine that GBU-39s were used in Nuseirat [UN School] because just as seen at the Rafah strike, you have the tail actuator section with the distinct bolt and fin slot.”
The Human Impact of Missouri’s Bomb-Making Facilities
“Ahmad Al-Najjar was a happy one-year old child from Gaza. He loved trampolines, balls, and cats. Born as the youngest of his four siblings, his father liked to call him ‘bobba’ or ‘baby.’ On Sunday night, May 26, Ahmad became the symbol of the unspeakable horror of genocide in Gaza after Israel bombed his family tent in north Rafah, killing him along with his mother, Faten, his sister, Houda, and his brother, Arkan.” – Seraj Assi, opinion piece in Common Dreams
Though he was bombed beyond recognition, Ahmad was the most recognizable victim of the tents massacre in Rafah, which burned alive, beheaded, and killed at least 45 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and wounded hundreds others.” – Seraj Assi
The Black Struggle: From Kansas City to Palestine
The question is often asked, particularly among folks in our Black communities, why we should care about something happening so far away, when we have daily occurrences of systemic and interpersonal violence within our own city.
Of course there are the immediate answers to such inquiries, such as; the fact it is the same white supremacist, colonial, imperialist forces (particularly the U.S. government and israel) who oppress both Black folks in the United States as well as Palestinians. We can also understand the moral logic that a genocide anywhere should be horrifying to humans everywhere. These factual responses are both true and ought to be compelling.
Yet, this latest revelation that israel’s increasingly primary weapon of choice is produced in our own state, and with the tax dollars of Missourians to decapitate babies, to burn humans alive, to engage in systematic mass assassinations, to produce hell on earth for an entire people, brings a new level of clarity to our own willing and unwilling complicity in this barbaric genocide.
In parallel, and perhaps more significantly, it exposes these shadowy producers of death who would prefer their operations remain cloaked by corporate defense industry euphemisms and the abstraction of violence.
