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Americans know that<\/span> the U.S. government and defense industry exports huge amounts of military goods to Israel \u2014 but they may not be aware that in some cases these shipments\u00a0travel beside them.<\/p>\n On Saturday afternoon, a cargo airplane carrying 14 tons of explosive materials bound for an Israeli weapons manufacturing company is expected to fly out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Saturday afternoon, according to air cargo documents reviewed by The Intercept.\u00a0<\/p>\n The explosive material, grade A nitrocellulose, is a widely used industrial material that plays a key role in making ammunition \u2014 from sniper bullets to rockets. According to the air cargo documents obtained by journalists at Irish news site The Ditch and researchers with the Palestinian Youth Movement, 51 pallets of nitrocellulose are expected to be delivered to the Israeli weapons manufacturing company IMI Systems, headquartered outside of Tel Aviv in the city of Ramat Hasharon. The main client of IMI Systems, previously known as Israeli Military Industries, is the Israel Defense Forces.<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s cargo flight is the largest single shipment of explosives to pass through NYC\u2019s busiest airport.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The cargo flight<\/a> by Challenge Airlines Israel is scheduled to depart from JFK at 2 p.m. on Saturday and land in Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Sunday, according to flight information. The manufacturer of the materials is not known, but the cargo\u2019s sender is listed as deriving from a Los Angeles ZIP code. While other weapons-related shipments have been sent from JFK to Israel, Saturday\u2019s cargo flight is the first confirmed shipment of nitrocellulose and the largest single shipment of explosives to pass through New York City\u2019s busiest airport, said journalist and lawyer Roman Shortall, co-founder of The Ditch.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Previously, The Ditch has reported on other military equipment flown out of the JFK airport, including ammunition<\/a> propellants, detonating fuses<\/a>, tear gas, F-35 combat jet parts<\/a>, and firearms<\/a>. Explosive materials, however, typically have been shipped in smaller amounts in separate flights, Shortall said. The concentrated amounts of nitrocellulose on Saturday are notable and prompt safety concerns for both civilians and workers at the New York airport, the researchers said.<\/p>\n \u201cOver almost two years of genocide in Gaza, JFK airport has served as the coordination point for the shipment of ammunition primer, small arms cartridges, detonators, and aircraft parts to sustain the Israeli military,\u201d said Aisha Nizar, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, a group led by Palestinians that has chapters across the U.S. and Europe. \u201cThese arms are threats to our communities here in New York, and show yet again, the complete coordination between the Zionist project and the U.S. ruling class, who are currently waging a war of extermination against the Palestinian people.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n IMI Systems\u2019 parent company Elbit Systems and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK, did not immediately respond to The Intercept\u2019s requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n