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humanitarian aid
Sanders Says US Complicity in Gaza 'Must End' Ahead of Senate Vote to Block Arms to Israel
"The United States government is currently in violation of the law, and every member of the U.S. Senate who believes in the rule of law should vote for these resolutions," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Nov 19, 2024
A group of U.S. senators led by Bernie Sanders of Vermont held a press conference Tuesday urging their colleagues to support resolutions that would block the sale of tank rounds, bomb kits, and other weaponry to the Israeli government, which has repeatedly used such arms to commit horrific war crimes in the Gaza Strip over the past 13 months.
"The truth of the matter is, from a legal perspective, these resolutions are not complicated; they're cut and dry," said Sanders (I-Vt.), who introduced the joint resolutions of disapproval in September alongside several other members of the Senate Democratic caucus.
"The United States government is currently in violation of the law, and every member of the U.S. Senate who believes in the rule of law should vote for these resolutions," Sanders continued, pointing to U.S. statutes prohibiting the sale of weaponry to countries violating internationally recognized human rights or obstructing American humanitarian aid.
Sanders was joined at Tuesday's press conference by Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), each of whom made their case to fellow senators ahead of a scheduled floor vote on Wednesday.
"What's unfolding before our very eyes right now is mass starvation and the spread of disease," said Welch. "Is the United States and its foreign policy... forced to be blind to the suffering before our very eyes?"
Surrounding the senators as they spoke were photographs of destruction and emaciated children in Gaza, where most of the population is displaced and crowded into small segments of the enclave as Israeli bombs rain down and famine takes hold.
Watch the full press conference:
The resolutions will hit the floor for a vote Wednesday with the backing of a broad coalition that includes Jewish Voice for Peace Action, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, J Street, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Oxfam, and other organizations and activists.
"For over a year, the Biden administration has funded the Israeli government's brutal genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, despite overwhelming opposition from across the country," said Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, which said it has driven more than 56,200 letters and more than 20,790 phone calls to senators imploring them to support the measures.
"These joint resolutions of disapproval are one of the last chances that Senate Democrats have before Republicans take control in January to uphold human rights, honor the will of the American people, and stand on the right side of history by blocking weapons to the Israeli military," Miller added.
"It is time to tell the Netanyahu government that they cannot use U.S. taxpayer dollars and American weapons in violation of U.S. and international law, and in violation of our moral values."
Since the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the U.S. has supplied its ally with more than 50,000 tons of weaponry and approved billions of dollars in additional arms and military equipment to be delivered in years to come. U.S. military support has helped Israel carry out a large-scale military assault on Gaza, killing more than 43,000 people so far—a majority of them women and children.
To sustain the flow of American weapons, the Biden administration has contradicted the findings of its own experts and outside analysts by declaring publicly that it has not found Israel to be illegally blocking U.S. humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, aid groups on the ground say humanitarian assistance has plummeted to an all-time low in recent weeks, with an average of just 37 aid trucks entering Gaza per day in October.
During Tuesday's press conference, Sanders said the "most important point to be made" ahead of Wednesday's vote is that "the United States of America is complicit in these atrocities."
"That complicity must end, and that is what these resolutions are about," said Sanders. "It is time to tell the Netanyahu government that they cannot use U.S. taxpayer dollars and American weapons in violation of U.S. and international law, and in violation of our moral values."
This post has been updated to correct when Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced the resolutions.
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Lifesaving Gaza Aid 'Has Fallen to an All-Time Low' Under Israeli Siege
"There is a strong likelihood that famine is already occurring in northern Gaza, and that immediate action is required within days, not weeks, to address the crisis," a new analysis warns.
Nov 14, 2024
More than two dozen international relief groups operating in Gaza warned Thursday that humanitarian assistance entering the embattled Palestinian enclave "has fallen to an all-time low" as Israel continues to block lifesaving aid, fueling nascent famine in the north.
"An average of only 37 humanitarian trucks per day entered Gaza in October, and an average of 69 per day during the first week of November. This is still well below the average of 500 per day which entered Gaza... before October 7, 2023, and was insufficient to meet the needs of the population," the seventh Gaza Humanitarian Aid Snapshot notes.
"For almost a month, Israel has blocked attempts by aid organizations to deliver aid in areas of northern Gaza, effectively severing the population from access to vital lifelines, including food, medical supplies, and all other humanitarian aid," the report continues, adding that "there is a strong likelihood that famine is already occurring in northern Gaza, and that immediate action is required within days, not weeks, to address the crisis."
"Tragically, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 20 aid workers from both Palestinian and international organizations," the analysis laments. "Staff were killed in their homes, in displacement camps, and while delivering lifesaving aid. Many aid workers lost close family members and relatives."
One forcibly displaced resident of northern Gaza told the report's authors:
Everyone has received this call before: One of your friends or colleagues or relatives or cousins is under the siege or bombs. And they ask for help. And you can't do anything. You can't do anything for them. And they die. They die while they are asking us to help them. This is the worst thing.
The report also notes widespread looting by desperate Gaza residents—a consequence not only of the bombing, invasion, and siege but also of Israel's targeted killing of Palestinian police officers—and criminal gangs extorting aid groups for "protection" money.
The new analysis came on the same day that a United Nations committee published a report concluding that Israel's policies and practices in Gaza "are consistent with the characteristics of genocide" and two days after the Biden administration—which backs Israel with arms and diplomatic support—sparked worldwide anger by asserting that Israel is not violating humanitarian law during the war.
A scorecard published earlier this week by some of the same groups that compiled the Humanitarian Aid Snapshot detailed how Israel has failed to fully comply with any of the Biden administration's 19 demands indicating compliance with humanitarian law.
As children in Gaza began starving to death earlier this year, the International Court of Justice—which is weighing a genocide case against Israel—ordered the Israeli government to stop blocking aid from entering the enclave. Israel has been accused of ignoring the order.
As the Humanitarian Aid Snapshot notes, Israeli forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded over 103,000 others as of November 12. Approximately 80% of Gazans are under forced displacement orders—a policy denounced by many as ethnic cleansing—and around 90% of Gaza residents have been forcibly displaced, most of them multiple times.
"The population in northern Gaza faces starvation, severe shortages of clean water, critical supply scarcity, and ever-increasing desperation," Mercy Corps, one of the groups that contributed to the analysis, said in a statement. "We call on all those with influence and power to take urgent action to de-escalate and halt the unrelenting violence in Gaza, to protect civilians and aid workers, and to do everything possible to achieve an immediate and lasting cease-fire."
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As US Keeps Arms Flowing, UN Panel Says Israeli Assault on Gaza 'Consistent With Genocide'
"Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation, and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war, and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population."
Nov 14, 2024
Less than 48 hours after the Biden administration said it does not believe Israel is unlawfully obstructing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, a United Nations special committee issued a report Thursday arguing that the Israeli military's actions in the Palestinian enclave bear "the characteristics of genocide."
"Since the beginning of the war, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies that strip Palestinians of the very necessities required to sustain life—food, water, and fuel," said the U.N. committee. "These statements, along with the systematic and unlawful interference of humanitarian aid, make clear Israel's intent to instrumentalize lifesaving supplies for political and military gains."
"Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated U.N. appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice, and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation, and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war, and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population," the panel added.
The new report examines in detail Israel's relentless and large-scale aerial assault on the Gaza Strip, which Israeli missiles and bombs—many of them provided by the United States—have rendered a "wasteland of rubble, garbage, and human remains," as one U.N. expert recently put it. Women and children have made up nearly 70% of those killed by Israeli forces in Gaza over the past 13 months.
The near-constant bombing since the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023 has devastated Gaza's civilian infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, sparking a massive public health crisis that has compounded the humanitarian impacts of the military assault.
Israeli forces have also systematically targeted Gaza's agricultural land and infrastructure, which along with Israel's suffocating blockade has created famine conditions across the enclave.
"By destroying vital water, sanitation, and food systems, and contaminating the environment, Israel has created a lethal mix of crises that will inflict severe harm on generations to come," the U.N. committee said in a statement Thursday.
"It is the collective responsibility of every state to stop supporting the assault on Gaza and the apartheid system in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem."
It is rare for a U.N. body to characterize a member nation's actions as genocidal, a fact that underscores the severity of the special committee's description of Israel's war on Gaza as "consistent with genocide."
"It is the collective responsibility of every state to stop supporting the assault on Gaza and the apartheid system in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem," the committee said Thursday. "Upholding international law and ensuring accountability for violations rests squarely on member states. A failure to do so weakens the very core of the international legal system and sets a dangerous precedent, allowing atrocities to go unchecked."
The panel's report comes days after the Biden administration said it has not assessed that Israel is illegally obstructing American humanitarian aid following a 30-day period in which the U.S. demanded improvements to conditions on the ground in Gaza. The latest U.S. assessment allows American military aid to continue flowing to Israel.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza didn't just not improve during the 30-day period—it deteriorated further, according to aid groups.
"Israel not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza," a coalition of aid groups said earlier this week. "That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago."
Continued U.S. military assistance is enabling what Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday called "war crimes and crimes against humanity" across the Gaza Strip. The group pointed specifically to the "massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians," which has "caused grave harm" without any "plausible imperative military reason."
"The United States, Germany, and other countries should immediately suspend weapons transfers and military assistance to Israel," HRW said. "Continuing to provide arms to Israel risks complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other grave human rights violations."
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