[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 5 (Wednesday, January 10, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S67-S68]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Israel
Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I would like to say a few words on the
resolution I have introduced under section 502B of the Foreign
Assistance Act, which I intend to bring to the floor next week. This
resolution is privileged. We will have a floor debate on it, and there
will be a vote.
There is some confusion, I think, regarding what this resolution
does, and I want to say a few words about that.
Very sensibly, the Foreign Assistance Act requires that when the
United States provides security assistance or arms to any country in
the world, that assistance must be used in line with internationally
recognized human rights. The act prohibits assistance to any government
that engages in a consistent pattern of violation of human rights.
That is the law of the United States of America.
This act also provides Congress with several oversight tools to make
sure that this law is, in fact, followed, and one of these tools is
section 502B(c), which allows Congress to direct the State Department
to provide a report on any country receiving U.S. security assistance
and that government's observance or lack of observance of international
human rights. That is what the law is about; and that is, in fact,
exactly what this resolution does.
In line with existing law, it directs the State Department to provide
any credible information it may have on potential violations of
internationally recognized human rights by Israel in its military
campaign in Gaza.
It focuses in particular on the denial of the right to life, a human
right enshrined in U.S. and international law caused by indiscriminate
or disproportionate military operations, as well as by the denial of
basic humanitarian needs and access.
It also asks for additional information on steps the United States
has taken to limit civilian risk in this war; a certification that the
Leahy laws are being fully applied; and a summary of the arms and
munitions provided to Israel since October 7, when the war began. In
essence, we will be voting on a very simple question. This is not a
complicated question.
The question is: Do you support, as a Member of the Senate, asking
the State Department whether human rights violations may have occurred
using U.S. equipment or assistance in this war? That is what the
resolution does--nothing more, nothing less.
This resolution is not prescriptive. It does not alter aid to Israel
in any way. It does not cut one penny of aid. It simply requests that
the State Department report on how U.S. aid is being used. The State
Department then has 30 days to provide a report responding to the
request.
To my mind, this is not a controversial resolution. Every one of us
should want to know whether our U.S. military aid is being used in
violation of international law or not. No matter what your view on the
war may be, it is a simple question. And I hope that we can get
widespread support for the resolution.
Now, let me say a word about why, in my view, this resolution is, in
fact, necessary. It is no great secret that the United States has long
been very supportive of Israel, providing billions of dollars a year in
military aid, year after year after year. We have also provided a
massive influx of arms and munitions since October 7, the day of
Hamas's disgusting terrorist attack against Israel.
The Israeli military has made extensive use of these U.S. weapons in
its campaign, including the widespread use of 2,000-pound bombs, 1,000-
pound bombs, and 155-mm artillery.
On December 1, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. has
provided at least 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells to Israel
since October 7, including more than 5,400 huge 2,000-pound bombs that
can flatten entire neighborhoods. The Washington Post reported that in
just 6 weeks after October 7, Israel dropped more than 22,000 American-
supplied bombs on Gaza. CNN reported that 40 to 45 percent of the bombs
used in Gaza have been unguided or what is called dumb bombs.
Let me be very clear. This aggressive military campaign has led to
massive destruction and widespread civilian harm. There is extensive
evidence showing that this military campaign since October 7 in Gaza
has been, far and away, the most intensive bombing campaign of the 21st
century.
Independent human rights monitors and the press have extensively
documented the use of U.S. arms in strikes leading to large numbers of
civilian deaths and injuries.
The Israeli military campaign is not just something that concerns me
or millions of Americans. It is also something that has been troubling
to the entire international community. The U.N. General Assembly and
U.N. Security Council have voted repeatedly and overwhelmingly to try
to secure humanitarian access to stop the bombardments and to enact the
humanitarian cease-fire. Unfortunately, our government has voted
against or vetoed most of those efforts.
We all know that Hamas started this war with its brutal terrorist
attack on October 7, an attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,200
innocent people, injuries of more, and the taking of over 200 hostages.
In my view, there is absolutely no question that Israel has the right
to defend itself and respond against the perpetrators of that horrific
attack; but while it is clear that Israel has the right to go to war
against Hamas, in my view, it does not have the right to go to war
against the entire Palestinian people, including many hundreds of
thousands of innocent men, women, and children in Gaza.
Israel has relied on widespread bombardment, including with massive
explosive ordinance in densely populated urban areas. This bombardment
and the severe humanitarian restrictions have led to a catastrophe that
veteran aid workers say goes beyond anything they have ever seen
before.
And let me say a word. Let me be very clear about what the
devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza looks like right now, today. Up
to now, some 23,000 Palestinians have been killed--70 percent of whom
are women and children.
Let me repeat: Some 23,000 Palestinians--remember, we are talking
about a population of a little over 2 million people. Some 23,000
Palestinians have been killed, 70 percent of whom are women and
children.
More than 58,000 people have been wounded; 146 United Nations workers
have been killed--more U.N. workers killed than in any previous war
ever.
In Gaza--and this, again, is just unspeakable. In Gaza, 1.9 million
people have been displaced by the bombing. They have been thrown out of
their homes. And that is more than 85 percent of the population.
Can you imagine a population of some 2.2 million people and 85
percent of those people have been forced out of their homes? And many
of those people today are homeless. And some 1.4 million of them are
crowded into U.N. facilities which were never, ever, ever intended to
be housing the kinds of populations that they are forced to house
[[Page S68]]
today. And, today, tens of thousands of Palestinians are sleeping out
in the cold as winter sets in.
What is also quite unbelievable is that over 70 percent of the
housing units in Gaza have now been damaged or destroyed.
Let me repeat that. It is really quite unbelievable. It is a war that
has gone on for 3 months--only 3 months--and 70 percent of the housing
units in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.
Unbelievably, according to a study by Professor Robert Pape of the
University of Chicago, what that statistic of 70 percent destruction in
housing means is that what is going on in Gaza after 3 months of war
has surpassed the destruction that took place in Dresden during World
War II.
I think when any person in America who knows anything about history
or anybody around the world thinks about the city of Dresden, what
comes to mind is the horrific bombardments that took place by U.S. and
British Air Force and the destruction in the city. Those attacks during
World War II took place over 2 years. The destruction in Gaza after 3
months, in terms of housing, is worse than what took place in Dresden
over 2 years.
Now let me say a word about another horrific reality that is taking
place in Gaza. So, above and beyond the death and destruction caused by
bombs and the Israeli military campaign, what we are now looking at is
the reality that Israel has made it extremely difficult from the very
start of this war for food, water, medical supplies, and fuel to get
into Gaza. This is no great secret. I think everybody knows it. The
result of it is that, right now as we speak, starvation and hunger are
a reality for the women, the children, and the men in Gaza--starvation.
The United Nations reports that more than 90 percent of the
population there faces ``acute food insecurity'' and that virtually
every household is skipping meals many days. Gaza is at risk of
widespread famine in the coming weeks and months. Hundreds of thousands
of children go to sleep hungry every night, and desperate Gazans--I
think we have pictures of this--are mobbing the few U.N. relief trucks
that can reach beyond the border crossing. These are hungry people who
see a truck full of food, and they are attacking that truck and eating
the food as quickly as they can.
Gaza's healthcare system has collapsed, with little electricity,
water, medicine, or fuel. Only 11 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are able to
function at all, and those that remain open can barely care for the
patients who go to them.
The lack of sanitation and the destruction of the infrastructure
there is leading to disease. In overcrowded U.N. facilities, thousands
of people must share a single shower, and more than 220 people have to
share a toilet. That is just a small piece of the horrible reality that
is taking place in Gaza right now.
Now, some people may say: Well, you know, war is terrible, and this
is war, and there is always collateral damage in war. But this is not
just another war; this is wholesale destruction in an almost
unprecedented manner. It is clear to me that the Netanyahu rightwing,
extremist government in Israel is now waging this war in a deeply
reckless and immoral way.
In other words, we all know that war is horrible and that we have to
do a lot better than we are doing right now in trying to eliminate war
on this planet. In war, there is always collateral damage, but
something more is going on here right now.
I would mention to the Presiding Officer that many senior figures in
the Netanyahu government have said things that only deepen the profound
concern we should all feel about what is going on in Gaza today.
Several of these government officials have talked openly about
reestablishing Israeli settlements in Gaza.
The current Intelligence Minister, among other senior officials,
openly talks of permanently displacing Palestinians from Gaza.
The Defense Minister declared a ``total siege'' at the start of the
war.
The Heritage Minister posted a picture of the devastation, saying
Gaza was ``more beautiful than ever, bombing and flattening
everything.'' All that destruction makes Gaza more beautiful than ever.
Another Israeli lawmaker said:
The Gaza Strip should be flattened, and there should be one
sentence for everyone there--death. We have to wipe the Gaza
Strip off the map. There are no innocents there.
I could go on and on with other terrible quotes from leading
officials in the rightwing government of Netanyahu.
Given all of this--given the scale of the destruction, the
unprecedented level of destruction, and the extent of use of U.S. arms
in this campaign, including thousands of massive, 2,000-pound bombs--
Congress must act to conduct real oversight. That is what the law is
about, and that is why I hope we are going to have widespread support
for the 502B resolution I will be offering next week.
The United States, whether we like it or not, is deeply complicit in
what is going on in Gaza right now. Those are our weapons that are
killing women and children in huge numbers, that are destroying homes
in huge numbers, that are causing massive levels of injury, that are
resulting in the hunger and the lack of medical care the people of Gaza
are now experiencing.
I have supported Israel for many years, and many of my colleagues
have as well. I don't think there is any debate in Congress that Israel
has a right to live in peace and security--something that has not
always been the case. They have been subjected time and again to
horrific terrorist attacks. They have the right to live in peace and
security, but I do not believe we are doing Israel any favors by
ignoring what their policies are doing right now. Friends have to be
prepared to tell friends the truth, and if Israel is a friend of ours,
as it is, we have to tell them the truth. The truth is that, all over
the world, people are outraged by Netanyahu's campaigns and destruction
against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The Biden administration has urged Israel to change its tactics and
to be more targeted in its military operations and to protect
civilians. We have heard the President say this over and over again. We
have heard Secretary Blinken say this over and over again. But the
Netanyahu government clearly has not listened, and they have continued
their very destructive war in violation of international law. Their war
is in violation of international law. In my view, that approach is
simply unacceptable and is not something we should be supportive of. In
my view, the United States must end our complicity in what is going on
in Gaza right now.
What this resolution is about, again, is not cutting one nickel of
aid to Israel. That is not what this resolution does. And you don't
have to agree with me in terms of what I perceive is going on in Israel
today. You can disagree with me completely. All this resolution does is
ask for more information from the State Department, which allows us to
determine whether or not Israel is violating international law. This is
information Congress should have. Whatever your views on the war may
be, this resolution should be something you can support. We are asking
the State Department for information. That is what we are doing. That
is all this resolution does.
If you believe that the military campaign in Gaza by Israel has been
indiscriminate, as I do, then we have the responsibility to ask that
question. If you believe that Israel has done nothing wrong, that what
they are doing is consistent with international law, which is what the
Israeli Government says, then the information coming from the State
Department should buttress your belief.
So let me conclude by saying that we are not all likely to agree on
the Israeli-Palestinian situation anytime soon, and we will have more
chances to debate these issues if and when we consider a foreign aid
supplemental bill, but asking for more information as to how American
arms and security assistance are being used, particularly amid the
level of death and destruction we are seeing in Gaza right now, should
not be controversial. In fact, it is exactly what our job is.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Cortez Masto). The majority leader.