[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 66 (Tuesday, April 16, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2781-S2783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISRAEL
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, as most everybody knows, Iran recently
launched several hundred drones and missiles at Israel. Fortunately,
there were no fatalities. This attack was Iran's response to an Israeli
airstrike on their consulate in Damascus, Syria, on April 1--an attack
which killed seven Iranian officials. I applaud President Biden for
doing what he can to make sure that this conflict does not get out of
hand, does not escalate, and does not create what would be a disastrous
regional war.
But while we pay attention to this developing Israeli-Iran crisis, I
hope very much that we will not lose sight of the unprecedented
humanitarian disaster now taking place in Gaza. We must not lose sight
of that disaster.
As I am sure all Americans know, the war in Gaza began on October 7,
when Hamas, a terrorist organization, invaded Israel, killed some 1,200
innocent men, women, and children, and took over 230 people into
captivity, many of whom are still being held.
It has always been my view that Israel had a right to defend itself,
respond to this attack, and to go after Hamas. It is also my view that
Israel does not have the right to go to war against the entire
Palestinian people, which is exactly what the Netanyahu government is
doing.
Let us take a deep breath and understand that what is happening right
now in Gaza is horrendous, it is inhumane, and it is in gross violation
of American and international law. It is driven by extreme, rightwing
Israeli Government officials and a government which is increasingly
dominated by religious fundamentalists. That is who is driving this
humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
What should be most troubling to the American people is that we as
Americans are complicit because it is U.S. taxpayer dollars that have
helped create this unprecedented humanitarian disaster.
Let me briefly describe what is going on in Gaza because it is so
easy, in a world full of problems--the media focuses on this, focuses
on that. Congress focuses on this and that. It is so easy to turn away
from the tragedy in Gaza, but we must not do that.
There are about 2.2 million people living in Gaza--2.2 million--
mostly poor and struggling people. Before the war--before the war--Gaza
was a very poor and desperate area. Let us not forget the important
fact that before the war, some 70 percent of young people in Gaza were
unemployed. That was before the war.
Since this war began, over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed and
77,000 wounded. Unbelievably, 5 percent--5 percent--of the residents of
Gaza have been either killed or wounded in a 6-month period--5 percent
of their entire population. Two-thirds of those who have been killed or
wounded are women and children.
Since the war began, 1.7 million people--over 75 percent of the
population of Gaza--have been driven from their homes. Let me repeat
it. Three-quarters of the population have been driven out of their
homes. These people--poor, and many of them are children--do not know
whether they will ever return; pushed out, not knowing where they are
going to go, where they are going to sleep--three-quarters of the
people of Gaza.
Over 60 percent--60 percent--of the housing units in Gaza have been
damaged or destroyed. This housing destruction is unprecedented in the
modern history of the world--60 percent of housing units damaged or
destroyed.
But it is not just housing. Israel has systematically destroyed the
healthcare system in Gaza. Gaza had 36 hospitals before the war. Now
just 11 are partially operational despite the tens of thousands of
injuries and hundreds of thousands of ill people. Persistent attacks on
healthcare facilities have killed more than 1,200 workers.
I have spoken with several American doctors who have returned from
missions to Gaza. They tell of operating for hours on end in crowded
hospitals with little electricity or clean water or medical supplies.
They have had to perform surgeries--including on children--with no
anesthesia. They have to try to sterilize and reuse medical gauze.
Thousands of women have had to give birth in these inhumane and
dangerous conditions, and healthcare workers report a major increase in
miscarriages. It is a healthcare nightmare.
But it is not just housing and the healthcare system that are being
destroyed by the Netanyahu government; it is the physical civilian
infrastructure in Gaza as well. More than half of the water and
sanitation systems have been put out of commission. Only one of three
water pipelines is operating. Clean drinking water is severely limited.
Sewage, raw sewage, is running through the streets of Gaza, spreading
disease. As we speak tonight, there is virtually no electricity in
Gaza.
But it is not just housing and healthcare and infrastructure that are
being destroyed. There are 12 universities in Gaza--12 universities.
Unbelievably, each and every one of them has been either damaged or
destroyed--universities. In addition, primary and secondary schools
have also been completely disrupted. Over 600,000 children have no
access to education.
As horrible as all of this is, there is something happening now that
is even worse, and that is what these photographs speak to. Hundreds of
thousands of Palestinian children face starvation. The people of Gaza
are struggling to survive from day to day, foraging for leaves, eating
animal feed, or splitting the occasional aid packages amongst their
family. Even in Rafah, where aid is consistently distributed, people
are desperately short of basic supplies, including food and water. In
the north, the situation is far more desperate. At least 28 children
have died of malnutrition and dehydration already--28 children--but the
real toll is likely much, much higher.
Without food and clean water, with sanitation systems destroyed, and
with little healthcare available, hundreds of thousands of people in
Gaza are at severe risk of dehydration, infection, and easily
preventable diseases.
Let me repeat once again. As we speak, hundreds of thousands of
children are at risk of terrible deaths.
Let us be very clear. The conditions that the people in Gaza are
experiencing today are the direct result of Israel's arbitrary
restrictions on the aid getting into Gaza. This is not a matter of
debate; it is an obvious reality that numerous--numerous--humanitarian
organizations have repeatedly confirmed.
Israeli leaders themselves admit it. At the start of this war, the
Israeli Defense Minister declared a total siege, saying:
We are fighting human animals, and we are acting
accordingly. . . . There will be no electricity, no food, no
fuel, everything is closed.
In January, Prime Minister Netanyahu said openly that Israel is only
allowing in the absolute minimum amount of aid necessary.
Tragically, the Israeli Government has lived up to those words. For
months, thousands of trucks carrying lifesaving supplies have sat just
miles away from starving children, prevented from reaching their
destination by unreasonable Israeli restrictions and a military
campaign conducted with little regard for civilian life. Trucks with
food a few miles away from children who are starving--Israel is
stopping those trucks.
The world saw evidence of that several weeks ago when seven aid
workers
[[Page S2782]]
with World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli airstrike. But
such attacks have been frequent, and Israel has killed more than 200
humanitarian aid workers in 6 months--not just the World Central
Kitchen; 200 humanitarian aid workers since this war began.
Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid pushed the United States and
the international community to extreme measures, including airdropping
supplies and the construction of a port, in order to get food to
starving people. That was our appropriate response.
Blocking desperately needed U.S. humanitarian aid is obscene, and it
is unacceptable. It is also a violation of American law. The Foreign
Assistance Act is extremely clear: No U.S. assistance may be provided
to any country that ``prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or
indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian
assistance.'' That is precisely what Israel is doing, and Israel is
clearly in violation of the law.
Following a tense, as I understand it, call between President Biden
and Prime Minister Netanyahu 2 weeks ago, Israel committed to a number
of steps to improve humanitarian conditions and aid access. These
commitments include opening additional border crossings, increasing the
number of trucks cleared for entry into Gaza, improving aid
distribution within Gaza, and reopening some bakeries and a water
pipeline to supply northern Gaza.
Two weeks later, where are we? Well, there has been a slight
improvement in the volume of aid getting into Gaza. Since the beginning
of April, an average of 181 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza per
day. This is marginally higher than was the case over the last several
months but far fewer than the 500 trucks per day that went into Gaza
before the war and before the devastation of civilian life there.
Unbelievably, Israel continues to block many aid convoys from
reaching those areas in Gaza that are most desperate. This morning, I
spoke with a humanitarian aid worker who was in Gaza just last week,
and he reported to me that humanitarian organizations continue--
continue--to face arbitrary Israeli restrictions.
Since the U.N. warned of imminent famine in early February, more than
40 percent of all food missions have been denied. Children are
starving. More than 40 percent of food missions have been denied. Last
week again, the U.N. reported that 40 percent of aid convoys to north
Gaza were denied access.
Israel's violations of international law are not limited to Gaza.
They are also breaking the law in the West Bank. Over the weekend, in
response to the tragic death of an Israeli teenager, large groups of
armed Israeli settlers rampaged through 17 Palestinian villages over 3
days. These vigilantes shot dozens of people, killing four, and burned
numerous homes. Videos taken by human rights groups show Israeli
soldiers watching attacks unfold and doing nothing to stop them. To the
best of my knowledge, no arrests have been announced as a result of
these attacks.
While this was a particularly violent weekend, this is a daily
occurrence for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Israeli soldiers
and settlers have now killed more than 460 Palestinians in the West
Bank since October 7, including more than 100 children. That is the
West Bank.
What Israel is doing today in Gaza and the West Bank is a defining
moment for Americans because we are deeply complicit in everything that
is happening. This is not some far-off situation that we have nothing
to do with. We are directly complicit. Now, the U.S. military is not
dropping 2,000-pound bombs on civilian apartment buildings. That is not
what the U.S. military is doing. But we are supplying those bombs to
the Israeli Air Force. The United States is not blocking the borders
and preventing food, water, and medical supplies from getting to
desperate people. That is not what we are doing. But we have supplied
billions of dollars to the Netanyahu government, which is doing just
that. The United States is not annexing occupied Palestinian land, but
it is providing political protection for the Israeli Government as it
does so.
Despite the massive financial and military support the United States
has provided to Israel for many years, the rightwing, extremist
government of Netanyahu has ignored increasingly urgent calls from the
United States to end the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, to stop
settlement expansion in the West Bank, and to lay out initial steps
toward a two-state solution.
Members of Congress may not know it. We live in a somewhat different
world. But the American people have had enough. The American people are
increasingly fed up with Netanyahu's war against Palestinians, and they
do not want to see their taxpayer dollars spent to support the
slaughter of innocent civilians and the starvation of children. That is
not Bernie Sanders speaking. That is what the American people are
saying. A recent Gallup poll showed that just 36 percent of Americans
approve of Israel's military action, with 55 percent disapproving. A
Quinnipiac poll showed that U.S. voters oppose sending more military
aid to Israel by 52 percent to 39 percent. An earlier YouGov poll also
showed that 52 percent of Americans said that the United States should
halt weapons shipments to Israel until it stops its attacks in Gaza.
That is what the American people are saying. And maybe, just maybe,
the Congress might want to listen to the American people rather than
powerful special interests.
The New York Times is what I would describe as a pillar of the
establishment. This is not a fringe organization. This is the
establishment. And the New York Times, just this Sunday, had an
editorial entitled ``Military Aid to Israel Cannot Be Unconditional.''
I would like to read a few paragraphs and then ask unanimous consent
that the whole editorial be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the New York Times, Apr. 13, 2024]
Military Aid to Israel Cannot Be Unconditional
(By the Editorial Board)
The suffering of civilians in Gaza--tens of thousands dead,
many of them children; hundreds of thousands homeless, many
at risk of starvation--has become more than a growing number
of Americans can abide. And yet Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu of Israel and his ultranationalist allies in
government have defied American calls for more restraint and
humanitarian help.
The United States commitment to Israel--including $3.8
billion a year in military aid, the largest outlay of
American foreign aid to any one country in the world--is a
reflection of the exceptionally close and enduring
relationship between the two countries. A bond of trust,
however, must prevail between donors and recipients of lethal
arms from the United States, which supplies arms according to
formal conditions that reflect American values and the
obligations of international law.
Mr. Netanyahu and the hard-liners in his government have
broken that bond, and until it is restored, America cannot
continue, as it has, to supply Israel with the arms it has
been using in its war against Hamas.
The question is not whether Israel has the right to defend
itself against an enemy sworn to its destruction. It does.
The Hamas attack of Oct. 7 was an atrocity no nation could
leave unanswered, and by hiding behind civilian fronts, Hamas
violates international law and bears a major share of
responsibility for the suffering inflicted on the people in
whose name it purports to act. In the immediate aftermath of
that attack, President Biden rushed to demonstrate America's
full sympathy and support in Israel's agony. That was the
right thing to do.
It is also not a question whether the United States should
continue to help Israel defend itself. America's commitments
to Israel's defense are long term, substantial, mutually
beneficial and essential. No president or Congress should
deny the only state on earth with a Jewish majority the means
to ensure its survival. Nor should Americans ever lose sight
of the threat that Hamas, a terrorist organization, poses to
the security of the region and to any hope of peace between
Palestinians and Israelis.
But that does not mean the president should allow Mr.
Netanyahu to keep playing his cynical double games. The
Israeli leader is fighting for his political survival against
growing anger from his electorate. He knows that, should he
leave office, he will risk going on trial for serious charges
of corruption. He has, until recently, resisted diplomatic
efforts for a cease-fire that might have led to a release of
hostages still in the custody of Hamas. He has used American
armaments to go after Hamas but has been deaf to repeated
demands from Mr. Biden and his national security team to do
more to protect civilians in Gaza from being harmed by those
armaments. Even worse, Mr. Netanyahu has turned defiance of
America's leadership into a political tool, indulging and
encouraging
[[Page S2783]]
the hard-liners in his cabinet, who pledge to reoccupy Gaza
and reject any notion of a Palestinian state--exactly the
opposite of U.S. policy.
Thanks in part to the bombs and other heavy weapons
supplied by the United States, the Israel military now faces
little armed resistance in most of Gaza. But Mr. Netanyahu
has ignored his obligations to provide food and medicine to
the civilian population in the territory that Israel now
controls. In fact, Israel has made it difficult for anyone
else to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza. The United States
has had to take extraordinary steps, including airdrops and
building a pier, to overcome Israeli obstacles to providing
humanitarian aid. Last week's attack on a World Central
Kitchen convoy in Gaza, which killed seven aid workers and
which Israel acknowledged was a mistake, underscores the
enormous danger facing the international aid agencies that
are stepping in to help.
This cannot continue.
Israel recently announce a pullback of troops from southern
Gaza. But this is neither a formal cease-fire nor and end to
the war, and it is incumbent on the Biden administration to
persevere in its efforts to help end the fighting, free the
hostages and protect Palestinian civilians.
A growing number of senators, led by Chris Van Hollen,
Democrat of Maryland, have been urging Mr. Biden to consider
pausing military transfers to Israel, which the executive
branch can do without congressional approval. They were right
to push for this action.
Last week, Representative Nancy Pelosi was among 40 House
Democrats to sign a letter to the president and the secretary
of state urging them to ensure that military assistance to
Israel is in compliance with U.S. and international law. The
mechanism to do that is already in place. In February, Mr.
Biden signed a national security memorandum (NSM-20) that
directed the secretary of state to obtain ``credible and
reliable'' written assurances from recipients of American
weapons that those weapons would be used in accordance with
international law and that recipients would not impede the
delivery of American assistance. Failure to fulfill those
measures could lead to suspension of further arms transfers.
NSM-20 did not break ground. Many of its requirements are
already law under the Foreign Assistance Act and other
measures, and they apply to armaments supplied to other
countries, including Ukraine. NSM-20 specifically excludes
air defense systems and others used for strictly defensive
purposes, but that still leaves many offensive weapons whose
delivery the United States could pause. But NSM-20 is
notable. It affirms the president's authority to use military
aid as a lever in ensuring the nation's weapons are used
responsibly.
The administration has tried many forms of pressure and
admonition, including public statements, reported expressions
of frustration and U.N. Security Council resolutions. None of
them, so far, have proved effective with Mr. Netanyahu.
Military aid is the one lever Mr. Biden has been reluctant to
use, but it is a significant one he has at his disposal--
perhaps the last one--to persuade Israel to open the way for
urgent assistance to Gaza.
Pausing the flow of weapons to Israel would not be an easy
step for Mr. Biden to take; his devotion and commitment to
the Jewish state go back decades. But the war in Gaza has
taken an enormous toll in human lives, with a cease-fire
still out of reach and many hostages still held captive. The
eroding international support for its military campaign has
made Israel more insecure. Confronted with that suffering,
the United States cannot remain beholden to an Israeli leader
fixated on his own survival and the approval of the zealots
he harbors.
The United States has had Israel's back, diplomatically and
militarily, through decades of wars and crises. Alliances are
not one-way relationships, and most Israelis, including
Israel's senior military commanders, are aware of that. Yet
Mr. Netanyahu has turned his back on America and its
entreaties, creating a crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations when
Israel's security, and the stability of the entire region, is
at stake.
Mr. SANDERS. This is what the New York Times says:
The administration--
Biden administration--
has tried many forms of pressure and admonition, including
public statements, reported expressions of frustration and
U.N. Security Council resolutions. None of them, so far, have
proved effective with Mr. Netanyahu. Military aid is the one
lever Mr. Biden has been reluctant to use, but it is a
significant one he has at his disposal--perhaps the last
one--to persuade Israel to open the way for urgent assistance
to Gaza.
Pausing the flow of weapons to Israel would not be an easy
step for Mr. Biden to take; his devotion and commitment to
the Jewish state go back decades. But the war in Gaza has
taken an enormous toll in human lives, with a cease-fire
still out of reach and many hostages still held captive. The
eroding international support for its military campaign has
made Israel more insecure. Confronted with that suffering,
the United States cannot remain beholden to an Israeli leader
fixated on his own survival and the approval of the zealots
he harbors.
New York Times, last Sunday.
Mr. President, the United States has offered Israel unconditional
financial support for a very, very long time. In recent years, that has
amounted to $3.8 billion a year, with numerous additional forms of
support. Right now, against my vote, Congress is considering another
$14 billion in military aid for Israel, $10 billion of which is
completely unrestricted military funding.
That unconditional support for the Israeli military must end. Instead
of begging Netanyahu's extremist government to protect innocent lives
and obey U.S. and international law, our new position must be simple
and straightforward: Not another nickel for the Netanyahu government if
their present policies continue.
The United States must use all of its leverage to secure an immediate
cease-fire in Gaza and across the region and demand that the massive
amount of humanitarian assistance that is needed to prevent famine and
widespread humanitarian suffering is able to flow into Gaza.
Mr. President, history will judge what we do right now. History will
judge whether we stand with starving children, whether we uphold
America's professed values, or whether we continue to blindly finance
the Netanyahu war machine.
I yield the floor.
____________________