Sanders to bring legislation blocking sale of certain arms to Israel next week

Sanders accused Israel of continuing to restrict the flow of food and medicine and said tens of thousands of Palestinians face malnutrition and starvation.

By HANNAH SARISOHN NOVEMBER 14, 2024 19:08

US Senator Bernie Sanders addresses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement posted to X, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (photo credit: SCREENSHOT VIA X)

Next week Sen. Bernie Sanders will bring to the Senate floor a number of Joint Resolutions of Disapproval in order to block certain offensive weapons sales to Israel, the independent Vermont senator announced in a statement on Wednesday. 

There is no longer any doubt that Netanyahu’s extremist government is in clear violation of US and international law as it wages a barbaric war against the Palestinian people in Gaza, his statement said.

"Out of a population of 2.2 million, over 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and 102,000 injured – sixty percent of whom are women, children, or elderly people. Israel has destroyed 70 percent of the housing in Gaza, the civilian infrastructure, the health care system, and hundreds of schools," Sanders wrote. "It has bombed every one of Gaza’s 12 universities."

Sanders said as horrific as the last year has been, the current situation is even worse. 

Accusations against Israel

He accused Israel of continuing to restrict the flow of food and medicine and said tens of thousands of Palestinians face malnutrition and starvation.

Transfer of humanitarian aid trucks into the Gaza strip through the “Kisufim” passage (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON UNIT)

"The volume of aid reaching Gazans is lower than at any time in the last year. Blocking humanitarian aid violates the Foreign Assistance Act as well as the Geneva Convention," he wrote. 

This week, the State Department announced the United States would not be limiting military aid to Israel given that the IDF has taken steps to improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. Washington warned Israel last month that military aid could be limited until progress was made. It did so based on Memorandum 20, which links such aid to humanitarian action.

"The United States cannot continue to be complicit in this war by supplying more military aid and weaponry to the Netanyahu government," Sanders said. "Congress must act to block these arms sales."