Sanders Announces Senate Votes to Block Arms Sales to Israel

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) today released the following statement announcing his intention to bring to the Senate floor two Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs) to block the sale of certain offensive U.S. weaponry to Israel:

Next week, I will force Senate votes on two Joint Resolutions of Disapproval I have introduced to block certain offensive arms sales to Israel. These sales, proposed by the Trump Administration, would provide $8.8 billion in bombs and other munitions to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s extremist government to continue its destruction of Gaza. Netanyahu has clearly violated U.S. and international law in this brutal war, and we must end our complicity in the carnage.

No humanitarian aid has entered Gaza in more than three and a half weeks, since Israeli authorities announced a complete blockade – that’s no food, water, medicine, or fuel since the start of March. Blocking humanitarian aid is morally abhorrent and a clear violation of both the Geneva Convention and the Foreign Assistance Act.

This war has been conducted almost entirely with American weapons and some $18 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars. Israel has dropped U.S.-provided 2,000-pound bombs into crowded neighborhoods, killing hundreds of civilians to take out a handful of Hamas fighters, and made little effort to distinguish between civilians and combatants. These actions are immoral and illegal. The latest Trump sales provide almost $8.8 billion more in U.S. bombs and other munitions, including more than 35,000 massive 2,000-pound bombs.

The United States must not continue to supply endless amounts of military aid and weaponry to the Netanyahu government. It is particularly unconscionable while President Trump and Israeli officials openly talk of forcibly displacing millions of people from Gaza to make way for what Trump calls a “Riviera.” There is a name for such a policy — ethnic cleansing — and it’s a war crime.

Hamas started this war with its brutal terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. Israel had a right to respond against Hamas. But Netanyahu’s extremist government has instead waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people. Out of a population of 2.2 million, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 112,000 have been injured – 60 percent of whom are women, children, and elderly people. In the last week alone, eight aid workers have been killed in Gaza, bringing the total to 399. Israel’s bombardment has damaged or destroyed 92 percent of the housing in Gaza, and devastated the civilian infrastructure and the health care system. Every single one of Gaza’s 12 universities has been bombed, as have hundreds of schools.

Congress must act to block these arms sales.