Bernie Sanders tables legislation to block $20bn in arms sales to Israel

US president Joe Biden approved $20bn in arms sales to Israel in August. Now senator Bernie Sanders has tabled legislation to ban the sales, which transgress both US and international law.

Sanders: “end its complicity”

It was January when the International Court of Justice found that it is “plausible” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Yet Israel has continued to pummel the Palestinian people using US-made weapons since.

“Netanyahu has bombed hospitals and schools, starved children, destroyed infrastructure and housing stock, and made life unlivable in Gaza. The United States must end its complicity in this atrocity”, Sanders said in a statement on his Joint Resolution of Disapproval, which seeks to ban the sales.

Sanders’ resolution would specifically block the $18.82bn in F-15 type fighter jets, which can be used to bomb Palestine. It would also block $774 million in tank rounds, $583 million in medium tactical vehicles, $262 million in Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) and $61 million in mortar rounds.

A fact sheet on the resolution notes that US arms sales to Israel violate its domestic law through the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), on top of the Biden administration’s own Conventional Arms Transfer Policy and National Security Memorandum 20.

Sanders said:

Israel has egregiously violated those rules. American weapons have been used indiscriminately and several of the systems included in these sales are responsible for a large number of civilian casualties

The arms sales also violate international law. On 20 June, UN experts stated:

The transfer of weapons and ammunition to Israel may constitute serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian laws and risk state complicity in international crimes, possibly including genocide

Israel is ‘ineligible for US assistance’

In his statement, Sanders continued:

It is also clear that Israel has blocked US humanitarian aid, making it ineligible for US security assistance under Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act

According to 15 aid organisations working on the ground in Gaza, Israel has been blocking 83% of food aid deliveries into the enclave. This has resulted in Palestinian people eating just one meal every two days, the entire 2.2m population being hungry, and half a million at risk of starvation.

It was recently revealed that the Biden administration ignored warnings in Spring from two of its own humanitarian government bodies that found Israel was blocking aid. These findings should’ve mandated an end in assistance to Israel.

If the Senate passes the resolution when it reconvenes in November, it will still have to pass the House and be signed off by Biden.

Sanders’ move is in line with US public opinion. A YouGov poll found that 61% of Americans and 77% of Democrats oppose arms sales to Israel.

The resolution factsheet lists a number of specific incidents where Israel has used US weapons to commit war crimes.

The document also points out that US administrations have historically leveraged weapons sales to reign in Israeli aggression.

The US weapons sales do not just concern the onslaught on Gaza. Israel has also ramped up its violent colonisation of the West Bank, which it has illegally occupied since 1967, and escalated its attack on Lebanon. This aggression is clear from Netanyahu calling Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon “preemptive”. The Israeli government also rejected proposals for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon. Israeli airstrikes have killed over 600 people in the country since Monday.

Featured image via Bernie Sanders – YouTube