Source: United States Senator for Vermont – Bernie Sanders
WASHINGTON, April 3 – After filing Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs) to block the sale of two of the most egregious Trump Administration offensive arms sales to Israel, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today rose to bring the JRDs up for a vote by the full Senate.
The sales would provide almost $8.8 billion more in heavy bombs and other munitions to Netanyahu, including more than 35,000 massive 2,000-pound bombs.
- The first resolution, S.J.Res 33, would block a sale of $2.04 billion for 35,329 MK 84 2,000 lb. bombs and 4,000 I-2000 Penetrator warheads.
- The second resolution, S.J.Res.26, would block $6.75 billion for 2,800 500-pound bombs, 2,166 Small Diameter Bombs, and tens of thousands of JDAM guidance kits.
All of these systems have been linked to dozens of illegal airstrikes, including on designated humanitarian sites, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties. None of these systems are necessary to protect Israel from incoming drone or rocket attacks.
The JRD is the only formal mechanism available to Congress to prevent an arms sale noticed by the administration from advancing.
Sanders’ remarks introducing the vote today, as prepared for delivery, are below and can be watched live HERE:
M. President, let me begin by telling the American people something they already know, and that is, as a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, we now have a corrupt campaign finance system that allows billionaires to buy elections and to influence major pieces of legislation. That, I think, is not a secret to the American people.
If you’re a Republican and you vote against the Trump administration in one way or another, you have to look over your shoulder and worry that you’re going to get a call from Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world. And he will tell you that if you vote against what he wants, he will spend unlimited amounts of money to defeat you in the next election. That’s not a great secret. That’s what Musk has been saying publicly.
If you’re a Democrat, you have to worry about the billionaires who fund AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. If you vote against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his horrific war in Gaza, AIPAC will punish you with millions of dollars in advertisements to see that you’re defeated. AIPAC’s PAC and Super PAC spent nearly $127 million combined during the 2023-2024 election cycle, according to the Federal Election Commission.
And I must confess that AIPAC has been successful. Last year, they defeated two members of the U.S. House who opposed providing military aide to Netanyahu’s extremist government.
Given all of that, I would hope that Democrats and Republicans who understand that they were elected to protect the interests of their constituents, not billionaire campaign contributors, would support the ending of Citizens United and the movement toward public funding of elections so billionaires could not continue to control the political and legislative process.
Further, I would hope that both parties would move to end super PAC funding in their primaries. I would hope that would be the case so that we can once again become a government of the people, by the people, for the people – and not a government run by the billionaire class.
M. President, I trust that every American – and certainly every member of the Senate – understands that Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this terrible war with its barbaric October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. The International Criminal Court was correct in indicting the leaders of Hamas as war criminals for those atrocities. Clearly, Israel had the right to defend itself against Hamas.
But most Americans also understand that, while Israel had a right to wage war against Hamas, it did not and does have the right to wage war against the entire Palestinian population. Tragically, that is exactly what we have seen over the last year and a half.
Let us be clear: Prime Minister Netanyahu’s racist and extremist government has waged an all-out barbaric war against the Palestinian people and made life unlivable in Gaza. Within Gaza’s population of just 2.2 million people, more than 50,000 people have been killed and more than 113,000 have been injured – 60 percent of whom are women, children, and elderly people. That is 7.4 percent of the population of Gaza killed or wounded. If those same percentages were applied to the United States, it would mean that over 25 million Americans would have been killed or wounded.
In total, since the war began, 15,000 children in Gaza have been killed, and today there are more than 17,000 orphans. But it’s not just the dead and the wounded. Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment has damaged or destroyed two-thirds of all structures in Gaza, including 92 percent of the housing units.
Almost no part of Gaza has been left unscathed. Most of the population now is living in tents or other makeshift structures.
M. President, most of the territory’s hospitals and primary healthcare facilities have been bombed, leaving virtually all Gazans without basic medical care. Think about what that means. I have met repeatedly with American doctors and others who have served in Gaza. And they are treating hundreds of patients a day without electricity, without anesthesia, without clean water, including dozens of children arriving with gunshot wounds to the head. I have seen the photographs and the videos.
Gaza’s civilian infrastructure has been totally devastated, including almost 90 percent of water and sanitation facilities. Most of the roads in Gaza have been destroyed and made impassable.
Gaza’s educational system has been obliterated. Children are not going to school. According to the World Bank, more than 2,000 educational facilities, ranging from kindergartens to universities, have been destroyed. Hundreds of schools have been bombed, as has every single one of Gaza’s 12 universities.
And M. President, there has been no electricity in Gaza for 17 months.
Put simply, Netanyahu and his extremist government have killed or wounded over 7 percent of Gaza’s population and have turned Gaza into a wasteland unfit for human life.
That is what has been going on over the last year and a half.
M. President, in terms of where we are today: the Netanyahu government broke the ceasefire two weeks ago, endangering the well-being of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.
Further, in the last two weeks, they have intensified their assault against the Palestinian people. According to UNICEF, since Netanyahu broke the ceasefire, more than 1,000 people have been killed, including over 300 children, and more than 600 children have been wounded. UNICEF says that most of these children were killed while sheltering in makeshift tents or damaged homes. Just in the last 24 hours, 97 more people have been killed in Gaza.
Since Netanyahu broke the ceasefire, even more aid workers have been killed, putting the total over 400 since the war began. Earlier this week, the United Nations announced that they had recovered the bodies of 15 emergency aid workers, who were killed by Israeli forces while wearing their emergency responder uniforms and then dumped in a mass grave in southern Gaza. They were buried alongside their destroyed emergency vehicles – clearly marked ambulances, a fire truck, and a UN car.
M. President, with the resumption of bombing, hundreds of thousands of Gazans are once again being forcibly displaced by bombing and evacuation orders. This week, Israeli authorities issued displacement orders for most of Rafah, where about 150,000 people were estimated to be sheltering.
Think about what all of this means in human terms.
Throughout this war, millions of desperately poor people in Gaza have been repeatedly driven from their homes. They have been forced to pick their way through a demolished landscape, again and again, with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. Families have been herded into so-called “safe zones,” only to face continued bombardment.
The children of Gaza have suffered a level of physical and emotional torture that is almost beyond comprehension and that will clearly stay with each and every one of them for the rest of their lives.
These children are hungry. They are thirsty. It is hard to get clean water. They have been denied healthcare, and have witnessed the death of their parents, their family members, their homes, and virtually everything around them. And they have been picked up and moved from one place to another, all the while drones are above them shooting or photographing what they are doing.
M. President, throughout this war, Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid have left hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of children, facing malnutrition and starvation. Children have literally starved to death while aid sat just miles away, blocked by Israeli forces. The UN, the United States, and every aid organization working in Gaza has been clear throughout this war: Israel’s unreasonable and unnecessary restrictions on humanitarian aid have contributed to massive death and profound suffering.
But as bad as the last year and a half has been, at least Israel let some aid through – not enough, but some.
But what is happening now is truly unthinkable.
Today, it is 31 days and counting with absolutely NO humanitarian aid getting into Gaza. Nothing. No food, no water, no medicine, no fuel for over a month. That is as clear a violation of the Geneva Convention, the Foreign Assistance Act, and basic human decency. It is a war crime.
You don’t starve children. And it is pushing things toward an even deeper catastrophe.
Earlier this week, 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme were forced to close because they ran out of flour and cooking gas. The UN is still trying to distribute its remaining stocks of food already in Gaza, but says that “the situation remains extremely critical since the cargo closure of the crossings almost a month ago.”
M. President, all of this is unconscionable. What we are talking about is a mass atrocity.
And what makes it even worse, why I am here today, and why I have introduced these resolutions that we will soon be voting on, is that we, as Americans, are deeply complicit in what is happening in Gaza.
This is not some terrible event. This is not an earthquake in Myanmar. It’s not something that we had nothing to do with. We are deeply complicit in all of this death and suffering.
Last year alone, the United States provided $18 billion in military aid to Israel and delivered more than 50,000 tons of military equipment. It is American bombs and American military equipment being used to destroy Gaza, kill 50,000 people, and injure over 110,000 people.
We cannot hide from that reality.
M. President, if we condone the barbarism that is taking place in Gaza today, we will have no standing in the world to condemn the horrors and war crimes that other countries may commit. You’re not going to be able to look at China or Russia or Saudi Arabia or any other country. We will have no credibility.
M. President, today is the day to stand up to barbarism in Gaza and to do our best to prevent future barbaric acts all over the world.
It is no secret to anyone how these U.S. weapons have been used.
Israel has bombed indiscriminately, killing civilians, journalists, paramedics, children, and humanitarian workers in record numbers. They have used massive 2,000-pound bombs in densely-populated Gaza, despite the fact studies show that 90 percent of victims of explosive weapons used in a populated area are civilians. These bombs have a blast radius of more than 350 meters, yet Israel has dropped them into crowded apartment buildings, killing hundreds of civilians to take out a handful of Hamas fighters.
All of that is illegal and immoral and against American law.
The Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act, what we’re talking about today, are very clear: the United States cannot provide weaponry to countries that violate internationally recognized human rights or block U.S. humanitarian aid.
According to the UN, much of the international community, and every humanitarian organization on the ground in Gaza, Israel is clearly in violation of these laws. Under these circumstances, it is illegal for the United States government to provide Israel with more offensive weaponry. It is simply against our laws.
Despite all of that, in the last month the Trump administration has announced its intention to transfer some $12.5 billion more in offensive weapons to Netanyahu’s government, in clear violation of U.S. law.
M. President, that is why we are here today. Joint Resolutions of Disapproval are Congress’ tool to enforce American law.
Today, we will vote on two resolutions to block two of the most egregious of these Trump administration offensive arms sales, which would provide almost $8.8 billion more in heavy bombs and other munitions to Netanyahu, including more than 35,000 massive 2,000-pound bombs that have killed so many civilians.
The first resolution, S.J.Res 33, would block a sale of over $2 billion for 35,000 MK 84 2,000 lb. bombs and 4,000 I-2000 Penetrator warheads.
The second resolution, S.J.Res.26, would block almost $7 billion for 2,800 500-pound bombs, 2,100 Small Diameter Bombs, and tens of thousands of JDAM guidance kits.
All of these systems have been linked to dozens of illegal airstrikes, including on designated humanitarian sites, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties. These strikes have been painstakingly documented by human rights monitors. There is no debate. And none of these systems are defensive, none of them are necessary to protect Israel from incoming drone or rocket attacks.
M. President, for those of my colleagues who are ambivalent about these resolutions, let me say a word about how the Trump administration is ignoring the law in advancing these arms sales, in terms of the process. Unlike Biden, whose policies on Gaza I strongly opposed, President Trump is trying to circumvent Congress with these transfers, ignoring the Foreign Assistance Act by issuing a bogus “emergency declaration” to bypass Congressional review.
There is no emergency to justify cutting Congress out of the process. In fact, some of the systems the Trump administration claims are part of this “emergency” sale have not yet been produced.
This is also part of a broader Trump administration effort to cut Congress out of the arms sale process.
M. President, it is no great secret that Congress is way out of touch with where the American people are on issue after issue. Everybody knows, Congress is way out of touch.
The billions of dollars that we are providing to the Netanyahu extremist government is just one more example of how out of touch we are with the American people.
According to a recent Economist/YouGov poll in March, just 15 percent of the American people support increasing military aid to Israel, while 35 percent support decreasing military aid to Israel or stopping it entirely.
To my Democratic colleagues, I would mention that just eight percent of Democrats support increasing military aid to Israel. 47 percent support decreasing military aid to Israel or stopping it entirely. Among Republicans, nine percent are for decreasing military aid and 15 percent are for stopping all.
M. President, I would ask that this poll be entered into the Congressional record.
And according to a J Street poll of Jewish voters in November, 62 percent of American Jews support withholding “shipments of offensive weapons like 2,000-pound bombs until Prime Minister Netanyahu agrees to an American proposal for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for a release of Israeli hostages.” And 71 percent of Jewish voters support increasing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
Finally, M. President, as unbelievably horrific as the situation in Gaza is and has been for the last year and a half, there is another development that could make it even worse.
In recent months, President Trump and Israeli officials have openly talked about forcibly expelling the 2.2 million people who live in Gaza to make way for what Trump calls a “Riviera” – some billionaires’ playground.
A few years ago, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said that he felt “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable,” floating the idea of redeveloping it. I think that many people at the time thought that was a weird and terrible joke. But it turns out that his father-in-law Donald Trump took it seriously.
Here’s what Trump has said, repeatedly, in recent months:
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it.”
“We’re going to take over that piece, we’re going to develop it.”
“I do see a long-term ownership position… Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.”
I guess he didn’t speak to too many Palestinians who live on that land.
On Truth Social, Trump wrote, “The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting.”
And what about the Palestinians who have lived in Gaza for their entire lives?
Trump said, “I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza.” “They live like they’re living in hell. Gaza is not a place for people to be living.”
Gaza could become “the Riviera of the Middle East … This could be something that could be so valuable, this could be so magnificent.”
Throw 2.2 million people who have suffered incalculably out of the land in which they live in order to create a billionaire’s playground.
M. President, there is a name and a term for forcibly expelling people from where they live. It is called ethnic cleansing. It is illegal. It is a war crime.
M. President, the United States must not continue to be complicit in the destruction of the Palestinian people in Gaza. History will not forgive us for this.
The time is long overdue for us to tell the Netanyahu government that we will not provide more weapons of destruction to them. Instead, we must demand an immediate ceasefire, a surge in humanitarian aid, the release of the hostages, and the rebuilding of Gaza for the Palestinian people.
For all of these reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote YES on these two resolutions which would prevent illegal and immoral arms sales to Netanyahu, would uphold Congressional power and the rule of law, and would protect innocent life.