US Senator Bernie Sanders to introduce bill to block arms sales to Israel
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders gestures while delivering remarks on lowering healthcare costs, in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office building, at the White House complex in Washington, U.S., April, 3, 2024. (Reuters)
Sen. Bernie Sanders said Wednesday he would file legislation next week to block the sale of offensive US weapons to Israel.
“Providing more offensive weapons to continue this disastrous war would violate US and international law,” Sanders said on the Senate floor.
The legislation, the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD), is the only mechanism available to Congress to prevent an arms sale from advancing, he said.
Sanders said the sales would reward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “extremist government, even as it continues to cause massive destruction in Gaza, undermine the prospects of a cease-fire deal that would secure the release of the hostages, and advance its effort to illegally annex the West Bank.”
Urging Congress to save lives, uphold US and international law, and stand up for US interests, Sanders said: “We must end our complicity in Israel’s illegal and indiscriminate military campaign, which has caused mass civilian death and suffering.”
Sanders noted that the Biden Administration approved a series of arms sales to Israel in August that totaled more than $20 billion, which included several systems that are directly tied to tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza.
The export of the weapons would violate the criteria laid out in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), he said.
“Sadly, and illegally, much of the carnage in Gaza has been carried out with US-provided military equipment,” he added.
Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a Hamas attack last Oct. 7, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
Nearly 41,300 victims, mostly women and children, have since been killed and over 95,500 injured, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel faces accusations of genocide for its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.
