[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 6, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2246-S2248]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISRAEL
Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I think that as human beings, we have a
tendency to try to avoid thinking about horrifying situations. Who
wants to think about, focus on things that are painful and terrible?
But whether we like it or not, there is, today, a horrifying
catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of children
are facing starvation because of Israel's indiscriminate bombardment
and unacceptable restrictions on humanitarian aid getting across the
border.
And let me remind every American and every Member of Congress, this
is not some faraway natural disaster that we as Americans have nothing
to do with. This is not an earthquake in Japan. It is not a drought in
Sudan. It is not flooding in China. The reality is that we as American
taxpayers are complicit in this humanitarian disaster. And as
Americans, we must end it.
First, let me briefly recap where we are today. Hamas started this
terrible war with a brutal terrorist attack that killed 1,200 innocent
Israelis and took 253 hostages--more than 100 of whom remain in Hamas's
hands, including Americans.
And just the other day, the U.N. reported that there is strong
evidence that Hamas also committed horrific sexual assaults against
Israeli women of the worst kind imaginable. Nobody will or should
forgive or forget those atrocities.
As I have said many times, Israel had the right to respond to that
attack and go after Hamas, but it did not--and it does not--have the
right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people. And that is
what Israel has done.
[[Page S2247]]
For 5 months now, Israel has unleashed total war on Gaza, relying on
widespread bombardment, including the use of 2,000-pound bombs. The
results have been catastrophic.
In the last 5 months, Israel has killed nearly 31,000 Palestinians
and injured more than 72,000, two-thirds of whom are women and
children--two-thirds of whom are women and children.
The United Nations has had 165 staff killed by Israeli forces, more
than in any other previous war. Some 364 health workers--people who are
there trying to take care of the sick and the wounded--and 132
journalists who are reporting on the situation have been killed as
well.
As this terrible photograph shows, the Israeli bombardment has left
Gaza in ruins. Now, 70 percent--let me repeat, 70 percent--of the
housing units in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. Unbelievably, 1.7
million people in Gaza have been driven from their homes--taken out of
their homes--and sent away without really knowing where they are going
to go or whether or not they will ever return or, in fact, be able to
return to this disaster. And that 1.7 million people is 80 percent of
the population of Gaza.
The civilian infrastructure in Gaza has been devastated, making life
unbearable for the people who reside there. There is virtually no
electricity and little running water. There is not a single fully
functional hospital for the 2.2 million Gazans, despite the enormous
medical needs that the bombardment has caused. People are getting
injured, no place to go.
As horrible and as unspeakable as all of this destruction is, we are
seeing something today that is even worse. For months, the U.N. has
warned that because of the Israeli blockade of food and water,
starvation and disease were growing threats. They warned in December
that a quarter of the population of Gaza--over half a million people--
were one step away from famine.
Since then, the situation on the ground has only worsened. People
have been reduced to eating leaves and animal feed. They are starving
to death. They are starving to death.
And, in the last week, reports of children dying from malnutrition
and dehydration have begun to emerge. At least 15 children have starved
to death. Unfortunately, these reports are likely to be the first of
many.
Despite this nearly unprecedented crisis, despite hundreds of
thousands of children facing starvation, humanitarian access has
actually deteriorated--deteriorated--during the last month. The needs
are significantly greater, but the aid that is coming in is less.
In February, an average of 97 trucks got into Gaza each day, down
from about 150 in January and well short of 500 trucks per day before
the war.
The situation is now so desperate and so inhumane that many of the
trucks entering Gaza are unable to reach their destination because they
are set upon by starving people who are ripping food boxes from the
trucks. In other words, people are seeing the trucks coming; they are
unable to get to the destinations that they are supposed to because
starving people are fighting for food.
Let us be crystal clear about why this is happening. It is happening
because Israel is not letting in enough humanitarian aid. And it is
actually that simple. They are not letting in the food, the water, the
medical supplies, the fuel that desperate people need.
Israeli restrictions on aid mean that only a tiny fraction of what is
needed is getting into Gaza today. And even when that aid gets in, we
are seeing Israeli military activities that result in very little of
that aid reaching the most desperate areas.
In the north, almost no aid has gotten through, leading to the
terrible incident of last week, where desperate Palestinians, pulling
sacks of flour off of the few trucks that got through, were met with
gunfire from Israeli troops. Earlier in February, Israeli forces fired
on a U.N. food convoy trying to reach the north, despite it having been
previously cleared by the Israelis. And just yesterday, the Israeli
military turned back a World Food Programme convoy carrying 200 tons of
food to starving people in North Gaza.
None of what is going on in Gaza today is a secret. Anyone who wants
to know does know.
And let me share with you what some of our leading U.S. officials
have said about the war and the current situation.
President Biden has repeatedly called the Israeli bombing
``indiscriminate'' and called Israel's response in Gaza ``over the
top.''
He said: ``There are a lot of innocent people who are starving. A lot
of innocent people in trouble and dying. And it has to stop.''
President Biden this week said: ``There's got to be a cease-fire,''
and ``we must get more aid into Gaza.''
He also said: ``We're are going to insist''--insist--``that Israel
facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the
help they need. No excuses, because the truth is aid flowing to Gaza is
nowhere nearly enough. Now, it's nowhere nearly enough. Innocent lives
are on the line and children's lives are on the line.''
President Joe Biden. That is not Bernie Sanders. That is President
Biden.
Vice President Kamala Harris said, on Sunday:
We have seen reports of families eating leaves or animal
feed, women giving birth to malnourished babies with little
or no medical care, and children dying from malnutrition and
dehydration.
The Vice President also said:
The Israeli government must do more to significantly
increase the flow of aid. No excuses. They must open up new
border crossings. They must not impose any unnecessary
restrictions on the delivery of aid. They must ensure
humanitarian personnel, sites, and convoys are not targeted.
Vice President Kamala Harris.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake
Sullivan have repeatedly emphasized these points to the Israelis,
pushing and urging them to be more targeted, to protect civilian life,
and to let food and water into Gaza so that children do not starve.
You have got the President, you have got the Vice President, you have
got the Secretary of State, you have got the National Security Advisor
saying over and over again: Israel must change its policies.
And in the midst of all of that, how has Israeli Prime Minister
Netanyahu responded to those requests and those comments? Here is the
American Government saying one thing. How has Netanyahu responded?
Well, his response has not been complicated. He has ignored them. He
has ignored what the President of the United States said, what the Vice
President of the United States said, what many of us in Congress are
saying, what the Secretary of State is saying, what the National
Security Advisor is saying. He has ignored it all.
Despite all of this--despite Netanyahu's refusal to adhere to any of
the requests and concerns that our government has conveyed to him, the
United States continues to pull out all the stops to support his
devastating war against the Palestinian people.
Year after year, we have provided $3.8 billion in military aid to
Israel--U.S. taxpayer money. More recently, the administration
requested and the Senate has approved--against my vote, I should add--
another $14 billion in military aid to this rightwing extremist Israeli
Government. Ten billion of that money is completely unrestricted
military aid that will buy more of the bombs Netanyahu is using to
destroy Gaza.
Just today--today--the Washington Post reported that the United
States has delivered more than 100 military sales to Israel since the
war began. That is right. Despite the scale of the devastation, U.S.
taxpayers continue to fund this war, and today we learned that the
administration has been breaking up these arm sales into Israel into
smaller tranches to avoid triggering congressional notification
requirements. That is unacceptable, and that is a brazen violation of
the spirit and intent of the law.
That is not the only way that the administration is refusing to
adhere to U.S. law. Israel's interference in U.S. humanitarian
operations is in clear violation of section 620I of the Foreign
Assistance Act, and that law and its language could not be clearer.
I want everybody to hear what the law says:
No assistance shall be furnished . . . to any country when
it is made known to the President that the government of such
country prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or
indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States
humanitarian assistance.
[[Page S2248]]
That is the law. The law is that if a country prevents humanitarian
assistance coming to these starving children, it is violating the law.
It could not be clearer than it is, and I think very few people doubt
that Israel is in violation of that law. Yet the administration and the
Congress do nothing.
The State Department doesn't even pretend to apply the Leahy law to
Israel, refusing to properly track U.S. arms or even identify which
Israeli units receive U.S. security assistance, a basic requirement of
the law and a standard applied to every other country.
As I go around Vermont and around the country, it is my strong
feeling that the American people are increasingly disgusted by the
destruction of Gaza and the unbelievable misery that is befalling the
Palestinian people who are there. The American people want it to end.
They don't want to be part of seeing children go hungry. They don't
want to be part of seeing entire communities literally destroyed.
Just the other day--and I hope my colleagues in Congress hear this.
Just the other day, a YouGov poll showed that 52 percent of Americans
agree that the United States should halt weapon shipments to Israel
until Israel stops its attacks on Gaza--52 percent. A lot of people
were undecided, and those who supported it was much, much less--a small
number. Fully 62 percent of respondents who voted for President Biden
agreed the United States should stop weapon shipments until Israel
discontinues its attack on the people of Gaza, while just 14 percent
disagree. In other words, the American people, in general, and those
who voted for President Biden, in particular, want this war ended. They
want the destruction stopped.
The American people understand a simple truth that we here in the
Nation's Capital continue to ignore, and that is that it is absurd and
hypocritical to publicly profess horror at Netanyahu's inhumane war
while, at the same time as we say how terrible it is, how awful
Netanyahu is--at the same time--we ship tens of thousands of bombs to
his army. It is absurd to criticize Netanyahu's war in one breath and
provide him another $10 billion to continue that war in the next.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this disaster is the fiction
we tell ourselves here in Congress, and that is that there is nothing--
just nothing--that we can do. Isn't this awful? My goodness, look at
all of those buildings that have been destroyed--70 percent of the
housing. It is terrible. Children going hungry--terrible. Children
coming down with disease--terrible, terrible. Nothing we can do.
Really? Everybody knows what is happening. We see it every day in the
news, and we see the pictures of the emaciated children, of people
bombed while they sleep. And yet Congress pretends as if we are
powerless to stop it.
Well, the fact is, this is not a natural catastrophe. This is a
manmade catastrophe. And if we had the political will and if we had the
courage to stand up to some very powerful special interests, yes, we
could stop it. We could stop the destruction, and we could make sure
that these kids do not starve to death.
But doing so will require that the U.S. Government and Members of
Congress have the courage to stand up to Netanyahu and to use the
incredible leverage that we have over the Israeli Government to secure
a fundamental change in their disastrous policies.
Of course, we have the leverage. We are funding the war. And if that
is not leverage, I don't know what leverage is.
The current reality is, frankly, embarrassing. I supported the
President's decision to airdrop supplies to desperate civilians in
North Gaza. Airdrops will buy time and save lives. I am glad the
President did it. The truth is, there is no substitute for sustained
ground deliveries and many, many hundreds of trucks every single day
getting into Gaza.
Right now, we have the incredible situation where a U.S. ally is
using U.S. weapons and equipment to block the delivery of U.S.
humanitarian aid. We are funding them to stop us from doing what we
want to do. And if that is not crazy, I don't know what is.
It is far, far past time for us to stop asking Israel to do the right
thing and to start telling Israel what must happen if they want the
support of U.S. taxpayers. Israel must open the borders and allow the
U.N. to deliver supplies in sufficient quantities. The U.S. Government
should make it clear that failure to open up access immediately and
feed starving people will result in the Netanyahu government not
getting another penny of U.S. taxpayer military aid. The United States
simply cannot allow hundreds of thousands of children to starve to
death. Whether Netanyahu likes it or not, the United States must do
what is necessary to get supplies into Gaza.
We all know that there will be a very long and tortuous road to
achieve lasting peace in the region and self-determination for both
Israelis and Palestinians. The people of Israel have the absolute right
to live in peace and security without worrying about terrorist attacks.
The Palestinian people have the absolute right to self-determination,
to live in peace, and to have a state of their own.
Madam President, I hope very much that there will be new leadership
that will emerge on both sides within Israel and within the Palestinian
community to make that happen and to achieve a meaningful peace
process. But one thing is very clear: Given the unprecedented
humanitarian disaster that is occurring in Gaza right now, the United
States must end its complicity.
I yield the floor.
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