[ Amid mounting global demands for a cease-fire, the U.S. senator
advocated for a "humanitarian pause" and an end to Israels
indiscriminate air assault.]
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BERNIE SANDERS SAYS FIRST PRIORITY IN GAZA MUST BE TO ‘STOP THE
BOMBING’  
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Jessica Corbett
November 1, 2023
Common Dreams
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_ Amid mounting global demands for a cease-fire, the U.S. senator
advocated for a "humanitarian pause" and an end to Israel's
indiscriminate air assault. _

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks on the Senate floor on
February 15, 2023. , (Photo: YouTube/screenshot)

 

With over 8,500 Palestinians already killed in Israel's war on the
Gaza Strip, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders
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floor on Wednesday to argue that the priority "right now must be to
stop the bombing and bring in as much humanitarian aid as possible."

Sanders (I-Vt.) again
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for a "humanitarian pause," or a temporary halt to hostilities for
delivery of essentials and possible evacuations, rather than calling
for a cease-fire, or a long-term suspension of fighting, which a small
group of progressive House Democrats—and people worldwide, including
hundreds of staffers
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his presidential campaigns—have been demanding
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Congress, the Biden administration, and the rest of the world "must
take action" to address the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, where over
half of the 2.3 million population is displaced and residents have
dwindling supplies of essentials, the senator said. He noted that
"medical facilities there are in nightmarish conditions, with hundreds
of babies in incubators and patients on life support at risk of death
should the generators that sustain them run out of fuel."

In the three weeks since Israel declared war following attacks in
which Hamas-led militants killed as many as 1,400 Israelis and took
more than 200 hostages
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repeatedly stressed the importance of ensuring that humanitarian aid
reaches Gaza, including by blocking
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legislation that he warned would worsen the crisis.

The senator, who briefly lived
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Israel in the 1960s and said
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few years ago that he is "proud to be Jewish" but "not actively
involved in organized religion," has also faced criticism from some
Palestinian rights advocates for not going further in his recent
remarks about the Israeli assault of the besieged enclave—which
legal scholars have called "genocide
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Palestinian American writer and analyst Yousef Munayyer said
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response to the Wednesday speech: "How many dead Palestinians is
enough for Bernie Sanders to call for a cease-fire? We learned today
that it is higher than 8,000, how high it actually is is still not
known."

Sanders, in his 18-minute address, acknowledged Israeli and Egyptian
blockades of Gaza over the past couple of decades, which led to living
conditions that "were horrific and inhumane" long before Hamas'
October 7 attacks. He said that "if we are serious about bringing
freedom and dignity to the Palestinian people, that is a situation
that can never be allowed to be returned to. The Palestinian people
are entitled to much more than that."

The senator called out Hamas as "an authoritarian terrorist
organization" that is guided by a "fundamentalist ideology" and rules
by force while "stockpiling arms and war material, taxing the
desperately poor population, and stealing resources to build tunnels
and rockets."

He also highlighted pre-war conditions in Israel, noting that the
nation "had the most right-wing government in its history," with "a
Cabinet that included outright racist ministers who consistently
dehumanize the Palestinian population" and Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu indicted for "a litany of corruption charges."

"Before the war, this right-wing Israeli government had systematically
undermined the prospects of peace," Sanders said, citing various
policies including settlement expansion and pointing to the recent
surge in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

"Rage and revenge do not make useful policy," he warned Israel,
recalling the U.S. response to 9/11. "Killing innocent Palestinian
women and children in Gaza will not bring back to life the innocent
Israeli women and children who have been killed by Hamas."

Sanders declared that "Israel has the right to defend itself and
destroy Hamas terrorism" but does not have the right to kill thousands
of civilians or endanger millions by cutting them off from
necessities. He added, "That type of action against a helpless and
impoverished population is morally unacceptable and in violation of
international law."

In addition to calling for an end to Israel's indiscriminate bombing
of Gaza, the restoration of water and power services, and an influx of
humanitarian aid from around the world, Sanders said that "Israel must
also begin the process of laying out a political strategy."

"Such a strategy must include as minimum first steps a clear promise
that Palestinians displaced in the fighting will have the absolute
right to safely return to their homes, a commitment to broader peace
talks to advance a two-tier, two-state solution in the wake of this
war, an abandonment of Israeli efforts to carve up and annex the West
Bank, and a commitment to work with the Palestinian Authority to build
genuine governing capacity," he said.

"The United States must make it clear that these are the conditions of
our solidarity," he continued. The U.S. gives Israel nearly $4 billion
in annual military aid and President Joe Biden recently requested over
$14 billion more in response to the current war.

Sanders on Tuesday led a small group of senators who argued
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any funding bill for humanitarian and military crises abroad must
include an equal amount "to address the urgent and growing emergencies
facing the American people at home."

He and some of those same senators also sent a Wednesday letter
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Biden asking for responses to several questions related to the
emergency funding request and stating that "the United States must
take a leading role in charting out a future that respects the lives
of Palestinians and Israelis alike."

_Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common
Dreams._

* Israel-Gaza War
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* Bernie Sanders
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* humanitarian intervention
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