Speech by Bernie Sanders to US Congress on 06 March, 2024. Sanders is a U.S. Senator from Vermont and candidate to become the next President of the United States…
Thinking about horrifying situations is something nobody wants to do — to focus on things that are painful and terrible. However, whether we like it or not, today a horrifying catastrophe is unfolding in Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of children are facing starvation due to Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment and unacceptable restrictions on humanitarian aid crossing the border. 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. It’s not an earthquake in Japan, a drought in Sudan, or 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 initiated 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. Just the other day, the UN reported strong evidence that Hamas also committed horrific sexual assaults against Israeli women. Israel had the right to respond to that attack, but it does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people.
For the last five months, 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 five months, Israel has killed nearly 31,000 Palestinians and injured more than 72,000, two-thirds of whom are women and children.
The United Nations has had 165 staff killed by Israeli forces, more than in any previous war. Some 364 health workers, people who were there trying to take care of the sick and wounded, and 132 journalists reporting on the situation have been killed as well. As this terrible photograph shows, the Israeli bombardment has left Gaza in ruins. Seventy percent—let me repeat, 70%—of the housing units in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. Unbelievably, 1.7 million people in Gaza have been driven from their homes, sent away without knowing where they will go or whether they’ll ever return.
Madam President, 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. Not a single fully functional hospital serves the 2.2 million Gazans despite the enormous medical needs caused by the bombardment. The situation is dire, and despite this nearly unprecedented crisis, humanitarian access has deteriorated during the last month. The needs are significantly greater, but the aid coming in is less, averaging 97 trucks getting into Gaza each day—down from about 150 in January and well short of the 500 trucks per day before the war.
The situation is now so desperate and inhumane that many of the trucks entering Gaza are unable to reach their destination. Starving people set upon the trucks, ripping food boxes from them. In other words, people are fighting for food as the trucks come in. Madam President, let us be crystal clear about why this is happening: it is because Israel is not letting in enough humanitarian aid. It’s as simple as that—they are not allowing the food, water, medical supplies, and fuel that desperate people need.
Israeli restrictions on aid mean that only a tiny fraction of what is needed is getting into Gaza today. Even when aid gets in, Israeli military activities often result in very little of it reaching the most desperate areas. In the north, almost no aid has gotten through, leading to the terrible incident last week where desperate Palestinians, pulling sacks of flour off the few trucks that got through, were met with gunfire from Israeli troops. Earlier in February, Israeli forces fired on a UN food convoy trying to reach the north, despite it having been previously cleared by the Israelis. Just yesterday, the Israeli military turned back a World Food Program convoy carrying 200 tons of food to starving people in North Gaza.
Madam President, none of what is happening in Gaza today is a secret. Anyone who wants to know does know. Let me share what some of our leading US officials have said about the war and the current situation. President Biden has repeatedly called the Israeli bombing “indiscriminate” and said Israel’s response in Gaza is “over the top.” He emphasized the need for a ceasefire and insisted that Israel must facilitate more trucks and routes to get help to the people in need. Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Tony Blinken have echoed these points, urging Israel to be more targeted and protect civilian life, while also ensuring the flow of aid into Gaza.
Despite these calls from top US officials, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has ignored them. His response has been simple: he has ignored what the President, Vice President, and others have said. Despite this, the United States continues to support Israel’s devastating war against the Palestinian people. Year after year, we have provided $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel. More recently, the administration requested and the Senate approved another $14 billion in military aid to this right-wing extremist Israeli government. $10 billion of that money is completely unrestricted military aid that will buy more of the bombs Netanyahu is using to destroy Gaza.
Just today, the Washington Post reported that the United States has delivered more than 100 military sales to Israel since the war began. Despite the scale of the devastation, US taxpayers continue to fund this war. Today, we learned that the Administration has been breaking up these arms sales into smaller tranches to avoid triggering Congressional notification requirements. This is a brazen violation of the spirit and intent of the law.
Madam President, that is not the only way the administration is refusing to adhere to US law. Israel’s interference in US humanitarian operations is in clear violation of Section 6201 of the Foreign Assistance Act. The law is clear: “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.” If a country prevents humanitarian assistance, it is violating the law. Israel is likely in violation of that law, yet the administration and Congress do nothing. The State Department doesn’t even pretend to apply the law to Israel, refusing to properly track US arms or identify which Israeli units receive US security assistance, a basic requirement of the law applied to every other country.
As I go around Vermont and the country, it is my strong feeling that the American people are increasingly disgusted by the destruction of Gaza and the unbelievable misery befalling the Palestinian people. The American people want it to end; they don’t want to be part of children going hungry, they don’t want to be part of seeing an entire community destroyed. Just the other day, a YouGov poll showed that 52% of Americans agree that the US should halt weapon shipments to Israel until it stops its attacks on Gaza. A substantial 62% of respondents who voted for President Biden agreed that the US should stop weapon shipments until Israel discontinues its attack, while only 14% disagreed. 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: it is absurd and hypocritical to publicly profess horror at Netanyahu’s inhumane war while, at the same time, shipping tens of thousands of bombs to his army. It is absurd to criticize Netanyahu’s war in one breath and provide him another $1 billion to continue that war in the next. But perhaps the most remarkable thing about this disaster is the fiction we tell ourselves here in Congress—that there is nothing we can do. Isn’t this awful? My goodness, look at how all of those buildings have been destroyed, 70% of the housing units. 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 emaciated children, people bombed while they sleep. Yet, Congress pretends as if we are powerless to stop it. Madame President, the fact is this is not a natural catastrophe; it is a man-made catastrophe. If we had the political will and the courage to stand up to some very powerful special interests, we could stop it. We could stop the destruction and ensure that these kids do not starve to death. Doing so will require that the United States government and members of Congress have the courage to stand up to Netanyahu and use the incredible leverage 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. 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; it is the right thing to do, and I’m glad the President did it. However, 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 US ally is using US weapons and equipment to block the delivery of US humanitarian aid. We are funding them to stop us from doing what we want to do, and if that’s not crazy, I don’t know what is.
Madam President, it is 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 US taxpayers. Israel must open the borders and allow the UN to deliver supplies in sufficient quantities. The US 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 US taxpayer military aid.
Madam President, 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 torturous road to achieving 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 new leadership will emerge on both sides within Israel and within the Palestinian community to make that happen and to achieve a meaningful peace process. One thing is very clear, given the unprecedented humanitarian disaster occurring in Gaza right now: the United States must end its complicity with that.
