[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 206 (Thursday, December 14, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5971-S5972]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Israel
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise to speak on two issues, but, first,
I would
[[Page S5972]]
like to ask unanimous consent that the New York Times article entitled
``We Are No Strangers to Human Suffering, but We've Seen Nothing Like
the Siege of Gaza'' 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, Dec. 11, 2023]
We Are No Strangers to Human Suffering, But We've Seen Nothing Like the
Siege of Gaza
(By Michelle Nunn, Tjada D'Oyen McKenna, Jan Egeland, Abby Maxman,
Jeremy Konyndyk and Janti Soeripto)
We are no strangers to human suffering--to conflict, to
natural disasters, to some of the world's largest and gravest
catastrophes. We were there when fighting erupted in
Khartoum, Sudan. As bombs rained down on Ukraine. When
earthquakes leveled southern Turkey and northern Syria. As
the Horn of Africa faced its worst drought in years. The list
goes on.
But as the leaders of some of the world's largest global
humanitarian organizations, we have seen nothing like the
siege of Gaza. In the more than two months since the
horrifying attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200
people and resulted in some 240 abductions, about 18,000
Gazans--including more than 7,500 children--have been killed,
according to the Gazan health ministry. More children have
been reported killed in this conflict than in all major
global conflicts combined last year.
The atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 were
unconscionable and depraved, and the taking and holding of
hostages is abhorrent. The calls for their release are urgent
and justified. But the right to self-defense does not and
cannot require unleashing this humanitarian nightmare on
millions of civilians. It is not a path to accountability,
healing or peace. In no other war we can think of in this
century have civilians been so trapped, without any avenue or
option to escape to save themselves and their children.
Most of our organizations have been operating in Gaza for
decades. But we can do nothing remotely adequate to address
the level of suffering there without an immediate and
complete cease-fire and an end to the siege. The aerial
bombardments have rendered our jobs impossible. The
withholding of water, fuel, food and other basic goods has
created an enormous scale of need that aid alone cannot
offset.
Global leaders--and especially the United States
government--must understand that we cannot save lives under
these conditions. A significant change in approach from the
U.S. government is needed today to pull Gaza back from this
abyss.
For a start, the Biden administration must stop its
diplomatic interference at the United Nations, blocking calls
for a cease-fire.
Since the pause in fighting ended, we are again witnessing
an exceptionally high level of bombardment, and at increasing
ferocity. The few areas left in Gaza that are untouched by
bombardment are shrinking by the hour, forcing more and more
civilians to seek safety that does not exist. Over 80 percent
of 2.3 million Gazans are now displaced. The newest Israeli
offensive is now forcing them to cluster on a tiny sliver of
land.
The bombardment is not the only thing brutally cutting
lives short. The siege of--and blockades surrounding--Gaza
have led to a critical food scarcity, cutoffs of medical
supplies and electricity, and a lack of clean water. There is
barely any medical care to be found in the enclave and few
medications. Surgeons are working by the light of their
mobile phones, without anesthetics. They are using dishcloths
as bandages. The risk of waves of waterborne and infectious
disease will only grow in the increasingly overcrowded living
conditions of the displaced.
One of our colleagues in Gaza recently described their
struggle to feed an orphaned infant who had been rescued from
the rubble of an airstrike. The baby had not eaten for days
after her mother's death. Colleagues could only scrounge up
powdered milk--not formula, not breast milk, and not a
nutritionally suitable infant food--to help stave off her
starvation.
Before the war, hundreds of truckloads of aid were needed
each day to support Gazans' daily existence. Only a trickle
of that required aid has made it into Gaza in the two months
since the war began. But even if more were allowed in, our
work in Gaza is dependent on ensuring our teams can move
safely to set up warehouses, shelters, health clinics,
schools, and water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure.
Today our staff members are not safe. They tell us they're
making the daily choice of staying with their families in one
place so that they can die together or go out to seek water
and food.
Among leaders in Washington, there is constant talk about
preparing for the ``day after.'' But if this relentless
bombardment and siege continue, there will be no ``day
after'' for Gaza. It will be too late. Hundreds of thousands
of lives hang in the balance today.
So far, American diplomacy in this war has not delivered on
the goals President Biden has conveyed: protection of
innocent civilians, adherence to humanitarian law, more aid
delivery. To stop Gaza's apocalyptic free fall, the Biden
administration must take tangible measures, as it does in
other conflicts, to up the ante with all parties to the
conflict and bordering countries.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken once said of the war in
Ukraine that the targeting of heat, water and electricity was
a ``brutalization of Ukraine's people'' and ``barbaric.'' The
Biden administration should acknowledge that the same holds
true in Gaza. While it has announced measures to deter
violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, Mr.
Blinken and his colleagues should apply similar pressure to
stop violence against civilians in Gaza, too.
The harrowing events unfolding before us are shaping a
global narrative that, if unchanged, will reveal a legacy of
indifference in the face of unspeakable suffering, bias in
the application of the laws of conflict and impunity for
actors that violate international humanitarian law.
The U.S. government must act now--and fight for humanity.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this article is authored by some
remarkable people: Michelle Nunn, president and chief executive of
CARE; Tjada McKenna, chief executive of Mercy Corps; Jan Egeland,
secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council; Abby Maxman,
president and chief executive of Oxfam; Jeremy Konyndyk, president of
Refugees International; and Janti Soeripto, president and chief
executive of Save the Children U.S.
I would like to take a minute to read two paragraphs from this essay,
which I have just entered into the Congressional Record.
It reads as follows:
As leaders of some of the world's largest global
humanitarian organizations, we have seen nothing like the
siege of Gaza. In the more than two months since the
horrifying attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200
people and resulted in 240 abductions, about 18,000 Gazans--
including more than 7,500 children--have been killed,
according to the Gazan health ministry. More children have
been reported killed in this conflict than in all major
global conflicts combined last year.
The atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 were
unconscionable and depraved, and the taking and holding of
hostages is abhorrent. The calls for their release are urgent
and justified. But the right to self-defense does not and
cannot require unleashing this humanitarian nightmare on
millions of civilians. It is not a path to accountability,
healing, or peace. In no other war we can think of in this
century have civilians been so trapped without any avenue or
option to escape or save themselves and their children.
I think this essay is worthy of all my colleagues and for the public
to read it. I hope they saw it initially in the New York Times and will
read it now.
Now I ask consent to go to a separate, unrelated topic.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lujan). Without objection.