Bernie Sanders’ Bid to Tie Israel Military Aid to Humanitarian Assurances Rejected by Senate

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in Washington, on April 20, 2023. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The U.S. Senate voted down a resolution on Tuesday night that would have frozen U.S. military aid to Israel unless the U.S. State Department conducted a review of alleged human rights violations by Israel in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

The resolution, brought by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), invokes a section of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act under which Congress can direct the State Department to provide an assessment of the human rights practices of nations receiving U.S. security assistance. Mr. Sanders’ resolution would have given the State Department 30 days from the passage of the resolution to provide the human rights review.

“In essence, we will be voting on a very simple question: Do you support asking the State Department whether human rights violations may have occurred using U.S. equipment or assistance in this war?” Mr. Sanders said upon announcing his resolution last week.

“This resolution is not prescriptive, it does not alter aid to Israel in any way. It simply requests that the State Department report on how our aid is being used … I hope it is not controversial to ask how U.S. weapons are being used.”

Ultimately, the measure was voted down 72-11, effectively halting consideration of Mr. Sander’s bill.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted in favor of Mr. Sanders’ resolution, as did Sens. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).

17 senators did not vote one way or the other on the resolution, including 15 Republicans and two Democrats.

Mr. Sanders’ resolution comes as Congress continues to negotiate around a $106 billion supplemental spending request from President Joe Biden. It ties additional U.S. security assistance to Israel to around $60 billion in security assistance and other funding for Ukraine, and a range of additional items.

Deliberations have stalled as Republicans have demanded stricter border security policies and policy enforcement in exchange for helping to pass the package.

Humanitarian Concerns

The humanitarian questions surrounding U.S. aid to Israel come after Hamas gunmen breached the Israel-Gaza barrier on Oct. 7 and carried out extensive attacks before returning to the Gaza Strip with more than 200 hostages. According to the latest Israeli estimates, around 1,139 people were killed in the Oct. 7 attack.

The Israeli government responded to the Oct. 7 attack with airstrikes, artillery strikes, and ground combat operations throughout the Gaza Strip. Some international observers, activists, and politicians have raised concerns about civilian casualties arising from the ongoing conflict.

The Gaza Health Ministry, which operates under the auspices of Hamas’s political control of the Gaza Strip, estimates that around 24,000 people in Gaza have been killed during the fighting since Oct. 7. The Switzerland-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has assessed more than 31,000 casualties in Gaza, including nearly 29,000 civilian casualties.

“We all understand that this terrible attack from Hamas, that Hamas is the enemy. But the Palestinians who live in Gaza and are not part of Hamas, they did not attack Israel. They are not the enemy.

“And thus, it’s essential that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s] war strategy targets against Hamas and not innocent Palestinians,” Mr. Merkley said in a Senate floor speech supporting Mr. Sander’s resolution. “It’s estimated that two-thirds of the people killed, two-thirds killed, have been women and children. That’s some 8,000 children, 8,000 women. It’s a massive toll. So, a report under Section 502B(c) would be valuable in understanding this strategy.”

The Israeli side has not offered many regular updates on casualty estimates from the Gaza conflict. AFP reportedly received a briefing from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that estimated two Gaza civilians have been killed for every Hamas combatant since the start of the current conflict.

Asked about the AFP reporting during a Dec. 6 interview with CNN, IDF spokesman Col. Jonathan Conricus said he was aware of the reporting but did not directly confirm the alleged casualty ratio.

Col. Conricus went on to say that, if those AFP figures were accurate, it shows a “tremendously positive” outcome by Israeli forces when considering the urban terrain of the conflict and that “a terrorist organization [is] using civilians as their human shields, and [is] embedded in the civilian population.”

In addition to civilian deaths, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency estimates that up to 1.9 million people across the Gaza Strip have been displaced from their homes as a result of the ongoing fighting.

‘Wrong Vehicle’ for Accountability

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who voted against the resolution, noted the State Department already provides annual reports on human rights compliance efforts by countries receiving U.S. security assistance.

Mr. Cardin argued Mr. Sanders’ resolution instead gives the State Department a 30-day window to investigate several specific matters and freezes aid if the State Department can’t finalize the report in time.

“I'll just give you one example, and there are many, many other examples here. They have to certify that no unit of the Israeli security forces that received U.S. assistance since January 1, 2018, has committed any gross violation of human rights. They’ve got to do that within 30 days or aid is suspended. Once they give a report, it triggers privilege resolutions on this floor to cut off aid to Israel,” Mr. Cardin said.

The White House also weighed in against Mr. Sanders’ resolution, ahead of the Tuesday vote.

“We do not believe that this resolution is the right vehicle to address these issues. And we don’t think now is the right time. It’s unworkable, quite frankly,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said of the resolution.

Mr. Kirby gave further assurances on Tuesday, that the Israeli side is beginning to transition to a less intense phase of conflict, withdrawing some of its troops from the Gaza Strip.

“We believe that transition will be helpful both in terms of reducing civilian casualties, as well as increasing humanitarian assistance,” Mr. Kirby said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD News