[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 88 (Tuesday, May 21, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3802-S3804]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, there has been a lot of attention and 
controversy attached to a recent action by the International Criminal 
Court, the ICC.
  The core purpose of the ICC is to prosecute the most serious 
international crimes--genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, 
and the crime of aggression. I believe that it is very important that 
all of us support accountability for these crimes and the important 
mission of the ICC.
  Last year, the ICC declared that President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, 
was in violation of international law and that he was a war criminal. 
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and one of his senior 
officials, saying there are reasonable grounds to believe that they had 
committed the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of 
population for their systematic kidnapping of thousands and thousands 
of Ukrainian children.
  I supported the ICC decision. In fact, that is the tip of the iceberg 
of what Putin has done in Ukraine. Putin started the most destructive 
war in Europe since World War II. He has bombed civilians and 
devastated civilian infrastructure, killing at least 30,000 civilians 
and displacing millions more. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and 
Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded as a result of Putin's 
horrific invasion of Ukraine.
  On that occasion, when the ICC declared Putin a war criminal, the 
U.S. Government welcomed the ICC decision. A White House spokesperson 
said:

       There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and 
     atrocities in Ukraine, and we have been clear that those 
     responsible must be held accountable. The ICC prosecutor is 
     an independent actor and makes his own prosecutorial 
     decisions based on the evidence before him. We support 
     accountability for perpetrators of war crimes.

  That is what a U.S. Government spokesperson said in March 2023, and I 
agree. In my view, Mr. Putin is, in fact, a war criminal.
  We live in a world of increasing division, tension, and hostility. 
Around the globe, countries are dramatically increasing their military 
budgets, and more countries are attempting to gain nuclear weapons and 
other dangerous weapons systems. It is in times like these that we most 
need international law. Without it, we will have an even more violent 
world where might makes right and war criminals can act with impunity.
  In recent years, the ICC has attempted to hold governments and 
political leaders accountable for crimes against humanity. That is what 
they do. That is what they are supposed to do.
  All wars are terrible, and very often, civilian casualties are 
unavoidable. But after the horrors of the Second World War, countries 
throughout the world came together to try to establish rules to govern 
the conduct of war and to limit civilian casualties. The ICC's role is 
to enforce these limits.

  Yesterday, the ICC prosecutor announced that he was requesting arrest 
warrants for three top Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, the 
group's leader in Gaza.
  To my mind, Sinwar and his Hamas accomplices are clearly war 
criminals. The horrific October 7 terrorist attack on Israel began this 
war and included the mass murder of 1,200 innocent men, women, and 
children, the taking of hundreds of hostages, and sexual violence 
against captives. These war crimes are well documented, and very few 
people would dispute the merits of those charges.
  The ICC prosecutor also asked for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime 
Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant. The ICC charges focus 
on the use of starvation of civilians as a method of war as well as 
international attacks against the civilian population. Those are the 
charges--the use of starvation of civilians as a method of war, really 
a war crime, as well as intentional attacks against the civilian 
population.
  Specifically, the prosecutor says that Netanyahu is responsible for 
``depriving [civilians] of objects indispensable to their survival, 
including willfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the 
Geneva Conventions.''
  Now, many people here in the beltway in Washington have responded 
negatively to this decision from the ICC prosecutor. It seems that some 
folks here were comfortable with what the ICC did in terms of Putin and 
in terms of Sinwar but not with Netanyahu.
  Some have argued that it is unfair to compare the democratically 
elected head of the Israeli Government to Putin, who runs an 
authoritarian system, or Sinwar, the head of a terrorist organization, 
but that is not what the ICC has done. In fact, the ICC prosecutor has 
looked at what each of these leaders has done, looked at their actions 
and then compared those actions to established standards of 
international law.
  In other words, the ICC is not making some claim of equivalence, as 
some have charged, but is, in fact, holding both sides in this current 
war to the same standard.
  Yes, democratically elected officials can commit war crimes. Let me 
repeat.

[[Page S3803]]

Democratically elected officials can commit war crimes.
  The ICC is doing its job. It is doing what it is supposed to do. We 
cannot only apply international law when it is convenient. And the 
independent panel of international legal experts the ICC appointed to 
help with this case unanimously--unanimously--agreed with the charges.
  People may be uncomfortable to see the Prime Minister of Israel 
charged with war crimes, but let us take a hard look at what he has 
actually done, and we must determine whether his actions meet the 
standard of being a war crime.
  In 7\1/2\ months, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed and 
almost 80,000 injured. Thousands more are still under the rubble, but 
their bodies have not been fully identified. Some 60 percent of the 
victims are women, children, or the elderly. More than 250 aid workers 
have been killed, including 193 U.N. staff--more than in any previous 
conflict.

  There are 2.2 million people living in Gaza. More than 1.7 million of 
them have been forced from their homes--75 percent of the population. I 
am trying to think of my own State and what it would be like if three-
quarters of the people--400,000 people--were just driven out of their 
homes, and these are, by and large, poor people, desperate people.
  In just the last 2 weeks, more than 900,000 have been displaced, many 
of whom have been forced to move many times during this war--chased out 
of one place, gone to another place; chased out of that place, gone to 
another place--and many of these people are children. Gaza has a very 
young population. Many of them are elderly, and many of them are sick. 
These are people who have been forced out of their homes, who have 
moved and moved and moved again and again, often without adequate food, 
without adequate water supplies, and certainly without adequate 
healthcare.
  When we talk about war crimes and when we talk about attacks on 
civilians, let's understand Gaza's housing stock has been demolished. 
Again, I try to think of my own State and what it would mean if 60 
percent of the housing was destroyed. Now, if these people who have 
been chased from their homes--displaced from their homes--are ever able 
to return to their communities, where are they going to live? Over 60 
percent of the housing units in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, 
including 221,000 housing units that have been completely destroyed, 
leaving more than a million people homeless. Entire neighborhoods have 
been wiped out both by bombings and by planned detonations of explosive 
charges.
  In other words, we are looking at a war. We understand Hamas is a 
very difficult enemy that often uses civilians to protect their own 
people--I have got it--but what we are talking about here is over 60 
percent of the housing units in Gaza that have been destroyed. It is 
hard for me to believe that there is a terrorist in every one of those 
buildings. Israel has destroyed the civilian infrastructure of Gaza. It 
has wiped out their ability to have electricity. There is virtually no 
electricity in Gaza right now, and there is virtually no clean water, 
and raw sewage is running through the streets, spreading disease. Now, 
if that is not an attack on civilians, I don't know what is.
  The healthcare system in Gaza has been systematically annihilated. 
There are 21 hospitals that have been made inoperable. In fact, of the 
36 hospitals in Gaza, only 4 have not been damaged by bombardment, 
raided by the Israeli military, or closed. More than 400 healthcare 
workers have been killed. Well, what do we say when we have a war in 
which the healthcare system is annihilated at a time when you have tens 
and tens of thousands of people who are wounded, many of them 
seriously?
  The education system in Gaza has been virtually destroyed. Every one 
of Gaza's 12 universities has been bombed. More than 400 schools have 
suffered direct hits, and 56 schools have been totally destroyed. 
Today, 625,000 children in Gaza have no access to education at all.
  I will tell you something else. When you talk about what is going on 
in Gaza, what is not talked about almost at all--I think I read one 
article on this. I want you to think about the psychic damage done to 
the children--to the children who see housing being destroyed and their 
parents or relatives being killed; who see drones flying around them, 
some of which have guns; who are being pushed out of their homes; who 
experience deafening noise, inadequate food, inadequate water; who are 
pushed, shoved into any place and every place. What kind of psychic 
damage is there? If there is one child in Gaza who does not suffer 
psychic damage from this horror, I will be very surprised.
  As a result of the destruction and Israeli policies restricting the 
entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, more than a million people today 
face catastrophic levels of hunger, and Gaza remains on the brink of 
famine. Hundreds of thousands of children face starvation. Even now--
more than 7 months into this war--Israel's invasion of Rafah has 
severely disrupted the humanitarian relief operation by closing the two 
main border crossings and making it almost impossible for the U.N. to 
access its warehouses or to distribute aid. Very little aid has gotten 
in for more than 2 weeks. Bakeries have had to shut down, and hospitals 
are running low on fuel.
  Just today--today--the U.N. announced that it has been forced to hold 
all food distribution in Rafah after running out of supplies.
  The World Food Programme said that humanitarian operations in Gaza 
are ``near collapse.'' It said that, if food and other supplies don't 
resume entering Gaza ``in massive quantities, famine-like conditions 
will spread.''
  Now, Mr. Netanyahu has been on TV today and elsewhere. He denies it 
all. Ain't true, says Mr. Netanyahu. He claims that Israel is deeply 
worried about the civilian population and is worried about the children 
and that Israel is not blocking humanitarian aid at all--not at all. 
Well, it turns out that the United Nations and virtually every other 
humanitarian group involved in the humanitarian disaster in Gaza 
strongly disagrees with Mr. Netanyahu.
  Now, we can trust the words of a Prime Minister under criminal 
indictment in Israel or we can trust the people whose function in life 
is to provide humanitarian aid.
  The U.N. Secretary General says that much more aid is urgently needed 
``to avert an entirely preventable human-made famine'' and that ``there 
is no alternative to the massive use of land routes.''
  Cindy McCain--the wife of our former Republican colleague John McCain 
and who is now the head of the World Food Programme--said of Gaza that 
``there is famine--full-blown famine--in the north, and it's moving its 
way south.''
  A month ago, more than 50--five, zero--humanitarian organizations 
called on Israel to allow greater humanitarian access and to stop 
unnecessarily restricting aid. These are 50 humanitarian organizations. 
Mr. Netanyahu says one thing, but 50 organizations that are desperately 
trying to get food to hungry people say something else. Let the world 
decide who is telling the truth. This group of humanitarian 
organizations included Catholic Relief Services, CARE, Mercy Corps, 
Oxfam, Save the Children, Refugees International, and scores of other 
well-respected humanitarian organizations. They say that Netanyahu and 
his team have blocked humanitarian aid.
  Two of our colleagues--Senator Van Hollen and Senator Merkley--
visited Rafah in January, and I heard their presentation to the 
Democratic caucus. Upset by the unreasonable Israeli restrictions on 
aid, they talked about trucks being inspected, inspected, sent back, 
and that things that should have been allowed to get through were not 
allowed to get through. They said afterward that the United States must 
``demand that the Netanyahu government lift the impediments to the 
delivery of basic goods needed to sustain life in Gaza.'' Netanyahu 
denies it, but two of our colleagues who were there say that Israel was 
blocking aid.
  The U.S. Government also disagrees with Netanyahu. USAID 
Administrator Samantha Power said:

       Food has not flowed in sufficient quantities to avoid this 
     imminent famine in the south and these conditions that are 
     giving rise already to child deaths in the north.

  In March, Secretary of State Blinken said:


[[Page S3804]]


  

       The bottom line is food is getting in, but it's 
     insufficient.

  In April, he said that there had been progress, ``but it is not 
enough. We still need to get more aid in and around Gaza.''
  And, in a formal report this month, the State Department said:

       Israel did not fully cooperate with the United States 
     Government's efforts and United States Government-supported 
     international efforts to maximize humanitarian assistance 
     flow to and distribution within Gaza.

  I got a kick out of hearing Mr. Netanyahu this afternoon. He talked 
about airlifts. My God, they are supporting airdrops. They are 
supporting food coming in from the sea. Well, the reason that the 
United States is spending millions of dollars to get food in from the 
sea is precisely because Israel is blocking the ability to get trucks 
in. The reason that Jordan and other countries and the United States 
are doing airdrops is, once again, because trucks cannot get through. 
Netanyahu is taking credit. Yet the reason we are having to do those is 
precisely because of the policies of his government.
  President Biden himself has said that ``a major reason why 
distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult [is] 
because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to 
deliver desperately needed help to civilians. . . . Israel has also not 
done enough to protect civilians.''
  This was from President Joe Biden.
  So it is fair to say that most of the world disagrees with Mr. 
Netanyahu.
  Think about all that destruction. Think about the tens of thousands 
of civilians killed and of the schools and hospitals blown up. Take a 
look at the pictures of emaciated children who are starving to death 
while food just sits miles away.
  One of the things that is interesting, to my mind, is we don't see 
enough of those pictures. Maybe that has something to do with the fact 
that Israel--the Israeli military--has killed dozens and dozens and 
dozens of journalists.
  I just met with some journalists last week. One was a young man who 
happens to come from my own State of Vermont who had no doubt that he 
was targeted along with other press people. They had big press symbols 
on their coats, and they were attacked. He was slightly injured. One of 
his colleagues was killed. Another one was severely injured.
  Now, if you add all of that stuff up, are these actions war crimes? 
Yes, I believe that they are. I believe that there is substantial 
evidence that the extreme rightwing Israeli Government, led by 
Netanyahu, has used starvation as a weapon of war and has clearly 
targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure.
  As I think we all agree--I certainly do--Israel had the right to 
defend itself against the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, but it 
did not--and this is where we get into the issue of war crimes. Yes, 
you have the right to defend yourself. Yes, Israel has the right to go 
after Hamas--very few people doubt that--but Netanyahu and his 
government do not have the right to wage an all-out war against the 
children, against the women, against the innocent people of Gaza. And, 
for that, there must be consequences.
  What the ICC has done is important not only for the global community 
in the sense that we cannot allow the human race to descend into 
barbarity. Somebody has got to say: Look, war is terrible. It is a 
little bit embarrassing as a human being that we have been at war for 
thousands of years and do not seem to make progress in eliminating war, 
but if there is war, let us learn from what happened in the past and do 
our best to protect the women, the children--the innocent people.
  So Israel had a right to defend itself against a terrible enemy in 
Hamas, but it does not have the right to wage an all-out war against 
the people of Gaza.
  Now, what the ICC is doing is important for the world. It is to tell 
leaders all over the world--dictators, people in democratic countries--
that if you go to war, you just cannot wage all-out war against 
civilians. That is what the ICC is doing. That is important.
  It is also important for those of us in the United States. Our Nation 
claims to be the leader of the free world--the free world. At our best, 
we try to mobilize countries to uphold international law and prevent 
crimes against humanity. That is what we do and have done.
  But how can or how will the United States be able to criticize any 
country in the world--whether it is Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, or 
anyone, any other country in the world--if we pretend that what is 
happening in Gaza is acceptable, if we actually believe what Netanyahu 
is saying?
  If we turn our backs and ignore the crimes against humanity that are 
being committed in Gaza right now, what credibility will we ever have 
in criticizing the actions of any country no matter how terrible those 
actions may be? Because people will say: Oh, really, you are attacking 
China or Turkiye or anyone else, really, really, deeply concerning. 
But, apparently, for Netanyahu, we don't believe it.
  I don't want to see this great country of ours be in that position. I 
want to see this country respected all over the world as a country that 
does believe in human rights, that does believe in international law.
  The ICC, as I see it, is trying to uphold international law and 
minimum standards of decency. Our government should do no less.
  I yield the floor.

                            MORNING BUSINESS

  (At the request of Mr. Durbin, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

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