'American taxpayer dollars are being used to starve children, bomb schools, kill civilians and support the cruelty of Netanyahu,' says Bernie Sanders
US Sen. Bernie Sanders forced a vote Wednesday to stop the sale of weapons to Israel, citing legal and humanitarian concerns.
"We (are) here in Congress tonight. Tonight (we) have the power to act. No more talks, no more great speeches. But tonight, we have the power to act, the power to force (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and his extremist government to end this slaughter," Sanders told the Senate floor.
His remarks came ahead Senate votes on his two resolutions to block a $675.7 million arms package to Israel and to prohibit the sale of tens of thousands of fully automatic assault rifles to Israeli forces and police.
"This debate is not really about Israel. It is about the United States of America, and whether we will abide by US and international law, or whether we will continue to contribute billions of dollars to an extremist government in Israel, which has caused an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in Gaza," Sanders said.
Sanders said the vast majority of the American people and the world community understand that Netanyahu's government "has gone well beyond defending itself from Hamas."
"Over the last 21 months, it has waged an all-out illegal, immoral and horrific war of annihilation against the Palestinian people," he said, adding the toll on Gaza's children is "unspeakable."
He reiterated that from March 2 to May 19, Israel did not allow a single shipment of humanitarian aid to come into Gaza.
"In recent months, the Netanyahu government's extermination of Gaza has made an unspeakable and horrible situation even worse," he said.
"What the extremist Netanyahu government is doing now is not an effort to win a war. There is no military purpose in starving thousands and thousands of children. Let us be clear: this is not an effort to win a war," he stressed.
Sanders also said the Israeli government is using mass starvation to "engineer the ethnic cleansing" of Gaza.
The US has provided more than $22 billion for Israel's military operations since this war began "despite these war crimes carried out daily and in plain view," Sanders said.
"American taxpayer dollars are being used to starve children, bomb schools, kill civilians and support the cruelty of Netanyahu and his criminal ministers," he said.
Sanders said when Gaza is witnessing mass starvation as a result of Israeli government policy, the US should not and must not be providing more weapons to enable "these atrocities."
"Whatever happens tonight, history will condemn those of us who fail to act in the face of these horrors," he added.
