US rejects Sanders’s bill conditioning military aid to Israel on human rights concerns

Vermont Senator Sanders’s bill gets rejected in the 100-seat Senate with 72 senators voting no

A bill by U.S. independent Senator Bernie Sanders – that would have conditioned military aid to Israel given the concern for human rights violations in war-torn Gaza – was rejected in a Senate vote Tuesday.

Vermont Senator Sanders, a Democrat-leaning independent known for his sensitivity on Israel-Palestine, has introduced a bill that could lead to a halt in military aid to Israel.

The bill, which was rejected in the 100-seat Senate with 72 senators voting no, would have conditioned U.S. military aid to Israel on the country “not committing human rights violations”.

It would invoke a relevant provision of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act and require the U.S. State Department to regularly “report to Congress on whether Israel is committing human rights violations in Gaza.”

If the State Department failed to submit a report to Congress within 30 days, military aid to Israel could have been suspended.

While it was stated that the probability of the bill’s approval in the U.S. Senate was very low, even if the bill passed, it had to be accepted in the House of Representatives and signed by U.S. President Joe Biden before it could be established as a law.

Experts evaluating the issue in the Western media noted that Sanders’ initiative was important to reflect the public reaction among Democrats to the policy of unconditional military support for Israel, even though the bill was unlikely to become law.

Source: Turkiye Today with AA