[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 77 (Thursday, May 8, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2825-S2827]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GAZA
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I want to say a few words about an issue
that people all over the world are thinking about, are appalled by but,
for some strange reason, gets very little discussion here in the
Nation's Capital or in the halls of Congress, and that is the horrific
humanitarian disaster that is unfolding in Gaza.
Today marks 68 days and counting since any humanitarian aid was
allowed into Gaza. For more than 9 weeks, Israel has blocked all
supplies: no food, no water, no medicine, and no fuel. Hundreds of
truckloads of lifesaving supplies are waiting to enter Gaza, sitting
just across the border, but are denied entry by Israeli authorities.
There is no ambiguity here. Netanyahu's extremist government talks
openly about using humanitarian aid as a weapon. Defense Minister
Israel Katz said:
Israel's policy is clear: No humanitarian aid will enter
Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure
levers.
Starving children to death is a weapon of war, is a clear violation
of the Geneva Convention, the Foreign Assistance Act, and basic human
decency. Civilized people do not starve children to death. What is
going on right now in Gaza is a war crime committed openly and in broad
daylight and continuing every single day.
There are 2.2 million people who live in Gaza. Today, these people
are trapped. The borders are sealed, and Israel has pushed the
population into an ever smaller area. With Israel having cut off all
aid, what we are seeing now is a slow, brutal process of mass
starvation and death by the denial of basic necessities.
This is methodical; it is intentional; it is the stated policy of the
Netanyahu government.
Without fuel, there is no ability to pump fresh water, leaving people
increasingly desperate, unable to find clean water to drink or to wash
with or to cook properly. Disease is once again spreading in Gaza. Most
of the bakeries in Gaza have now shut down, having run out of fuel and
flour. The few remaining community kitchens are also shutting down.
Most people are now surviving on scarce canned goods, often a single
can of beans or some lentils shared between a family once a day.
The United Nations reports that more than 2 million people out of a
population of 2.2 million face severe food shortages. The starvation
hits children the hardest. At least 65,000 children now show symptoms
of malnutrition and dozens have already starved to death. Malnutrition
rates increased 80 percent in March, the last month for which data is
available after Netanyahu began the siege, but the situation has
severely deteriorated since then.
UNICEF reported yesterday that ``the situation is getting worse every
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day'' and that they are treating about 10,000 children for severe
malnutrition. And severe malnutrition is not something that is cured
overnight. This will have a permanent impact on the health and well-
being of those kids for the rest of their lives.
Without adequate nutrition or access to clean water, many children
will die of easily preventable diseases, killed by something as simple
as diarrhea. For the tens of thousands of injured people in Gaza,
particularly the countless burn victims from Israeli bombings, their
wounds cannot heal without adequate food and clean water. Left to
fester, infections will kill many who should have survived.
With no infant formula and with malnourished mothers unable to
breastfeed, many infants are also at severe risk of death. Those who
survive will bear the scars of what they are going through now for the
rest of their lives.
And with little medicine available, easily treatable illnesses and
chronic diseases like diabetes or heart disease is now a death sentence
in Gaza.
What is going on there is not some terrible earthquake; it is not a
hurricane; it is not a storm. What is going on in Gaza today is a man-
made nightmare, and nothing in my view can justify this.
What is happening in Gaza will be a permanent stain on the world's
collective conscience. History will never forget that we allowed this
to happen and, for us here in the United States, that we, in fact,
enabled this ongoing atrocity.
There is no doubt that Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this
terrible war with its barbaric October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which
killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. The International
Criminal Court was right to indict Yahya Sinwar and other leaders of
Hamas as war criminals for those atrocities.
Clearly, Israel, as any other country that was so attacked, had the
right to defend itself against Hamas. But Netanyahu's extremist
government has not just waged war against Hamas. Instead, they have
waged an all-out barbaric war of annihilation against the Palestinian
people. They have intentionally made life unlivable in Gaza.
Israel, up to now, has killed more than 52,000 people and injured
more than 118,000--60 percent of whom are women, children, and the
elderly. More than 15,000 children in Gaza have been killed.
Israel's indiscriminate bombardment has damaged or destroyed two-
thirds of all of the structures in Gaza, including 92 percent of the
housing units--92 percent of housing in Gaza has been damaged or
destroyed. Most of the population now is living in tents or other
makeshift structures.
The healthcare system in Gaza has been, essentially, destroyed. Most
of the territory's hospitals and primary healthcare facilities have
been bombed. Gaza's civilian infrastructure has been totally
devastated, including almost 90 percent of water and sanitation
facilities. Most of the roads have been destroyed.
Gaza's educational system has been obliterated. Hundreds of schools
have been bombed--schools have been bombed--as has every single one of
Gaza's 12 universities.
And there has been no electricity in Gaza for 18 months--no
electricity.
Given this reality, nobody should have any doubts that Netanyahu is a
war criminal. Just like his counterparts in Hamas, he has a massive
amount of innocent blood on his hands.
And now, Netanyahu and his extremist ministers have a new plan--on
top of everything else that has been done, they have a new plan--and
that is to indefinitely reoccupy all of Gaza, flatten the few buildings
that are still standing, and force the entire population of 2.2 million
people into a single tiny area where hired U.S. security contractors
will distribute rations to the survivors.
Israeli officials are quite open about the goal here: to force
Palestinians to leave for other countries ``in line with President
Trump's vision for Gaza,'' as one Israeli official said this week.
Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich said this week that ``Gaza will be
entirely destroyed'' and that its population will ``leave in great
numbers.''
For many in Netanyahu's extremist government, this has been the plan
all along. It is called ethnic cleansing.
This would be a terrible tragedy no matter where in the world it was
happening or why it was happening, whatever the causes of it might be.
But what makes this tragedy so much worse for us in America is that it
is our government, the U.S. Government, that is absolutely complicit in
creating and sustaining this humanitarian disaster. It didn't just
happen; we are a significant part of creating this humanitarian
disaster.
Last year alone, the United States provided 18 billion in military
aid to Israel. This year, the Trump administration has approved 12
billion more in bombs and weapons. And for months, Trump has offered
blanket support for Netanyahu. More than that, he has repeatedly said
that the United States will actually take over Gaza after the war, that
the Palestinian people will be driven, forcibly expelled, from their
homeland, and the United States will redevelop it into what Trump calls
``the riviera of the Middle East,'' a playground for billionaires.
Think about it: 2.2 million desperate people who have been bombed and
starved and driven from their homes are now about to be forcibly
expelled from their territory into God knows where so that Trump and
his friends can build a riviera for the billionaire class.
This war has killed or injured more than 170,000 people in Gaza. It
has cost American taxpayers well over $20 billion in the last year. And
right now, as we speak, thousands of children are starving to death.
And a U.S. President is actively encouraging the ethnic cleansing of
over 2 million people.
Now, given that reality, one might think that there would be a
vigorous discussion right here in the Senate. Do we really want to
spend billions of taxpayer dollars starving children in Gaza? A real
vigorous debate. I want to hear why that is a good use. We have people
sleeping out on the streets of America two blocks from the Nation's
Capital. You tell me why spending billions of dollars to support
Netanyahu's war and starving children is a good idea. I would love to
hear it.
We are not having that debate. Let me suggest to you why I think we
are not having that debate and that is because we have a corrupt
campaign finance system that allows organizations like AIPAC to set the
agenda here in Washington with regard to what happens in the Middle
East.
In the last election cycle, AIPAC's PAC and super PAC spent nearly
$127 million combined on campaign contributions. And the fact is that
if you are a Member of Congress and you vote against Netanyahu's war in
Gaza, AIPAC is there to punish you with millions of dollars in
advertisements to see that you get defeated.
One might think that in a democracy there would be a vigorous debate
on an issue of such consequence. But because of our corrupt campaign
finance system, which impacts us in so many ways on this issue, people
are literally afraid to stand up because if they do, suddenly, you are
going to have all kinds of ads coming into your district to defeat you.
Sadly, I must confess that this political corruption works. Many of
my colleagues will privately express their horror at Netanyahu's war
crimes but will do or say very little publicly about it. History will
not forgive our complicity in this nightmare. The time is long overdue
for us to end our support for Netanyahu's destruction of the
Palestinian people.
We must not put another nickel into Netanyahu's war machine. We must
demand an immediate cease-fire, a surge in humanitarian aid, the
release of the hostages, and the rebuilding of Gaza--not for
billionaires to enjoy their Riviera there but rebuilding Gaza for the
Palestinian people.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Budd). The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. MORENO. Mr. President, I have been in the U.S. Senate now for a
total of 125 days. I have seen some outrageous comments over the last
125 days. My colleague has been here exactly 12,000 days more than I
have. Let me just set the record straight.
On October 7, 2023, families, mothers, fathers were sitting at home,
enjoying a peaceful existence in one of the most difficult places on
Earth to live. They had a day planned of joy at a festival.
[[Page S2827]]
What happened? People came over and savagely--savagely--murdered
children, raped women, took hundreds of hostages, killed more Jews than
at any time since the Holocaust.
What you just heard for the last 15 minutes could be summarized as
the absolute propaganda of Hamas. Let me just be clear. This war was
started by Hamas. It could end today by Hamas if they released every
last hostage, including an American citizen.
We are sitting here in the U.S. Senate and not even saying a word of
the fact that there is a U.S. citizen being held hostage by a terrorist
group in the Middle East. That is outrageous. That should be at the top
of the agenda. Why have civilians been killed in Gaza? Because they
hide weapons in hospitals, in schools, in homes.
Hamas is the enemy, not our greatest ally, which is Israel. I was
just there 2 weeks ago. Two weeks ago, I was there. There is almost no
Israeli that hasn't seen a mom, a dad, a son, a grandson, granddaughter
that hasn't been either injured or killed to protect their country. The
fact that we are disparaging our greatest ally at this level is
completely outrageous.
I had plans to go home, see my wife and kids, but I rose today
because I cannot stay silent after listening to that kind of nonsense
spewed here in the U.S. Senate. It is a disgrace, and we should not
ever forget that Israel is just fighting the war that we would
otherwise fight.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, if the Senator had heard my remarks, I
talked about the need to release the hostages and I talked about who
started the war, which is the terrorist organization called Hamas, led
by war criminals. There is no debate about that.
But what the Senator did not tell us is whether or not he thinks it
is a good idea for U.S. taxpayers to be spending billions of billions
of dollars on an extremist government in Israel whose stated policy is
to starve children; whether or not he thinks it is a good idea to cut
off all humanitarian aid getting into Gaza right now--no medicine, no
clean water, no healthcare facilities open.
So the issue is not who started the war. Everyone knows who started
the war. The issue is whether you commit war atrocities, criminal war
acts by punishing an entire people for the acts of a terrorist
organization.
Did Israel have the right to defend itself? Yes, nobody denies that.
Did it have a right to kill over 50,000 people--60 percent of whom
are women, children, and the elderly? No.
Did it have a right to injure 112,000 people, to destroy almost every
housing unit in Gaza, to bomb hundreds of schools at every university
in Gaza? No.
Israel had a right to defend itself, but it does not have the right
to engage in ethnic cleansing and to starve children.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
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