Senate to vote on Sanders’ measure requiring human rights scrutiny over Israel aid

Bernie Sanders was set on Tuesday evening to force the US Senate into a long-shot test vote on requiring further US military aid to Israel to be conditioned on whether the Israeli government is violating human rights and international accords in its devastating war in Gaza.

A measure he has introduced, to be debated and voted on by senators, is one of several that progressives have proposed to raise concerns over Israel’s attacks on Gaza, where the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 24,000 and Israel’s bombardment since Hamas launched attacks on it on 7 October has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents.

“To my mind, Israel has the absolute right to defend itself from Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack on October 7, no question about that,” Sanders told the Associated Press in an interview.

“But what Israel does not have a right to do – using military assistance from the United States – does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people,” said Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats in Congress. “And in my view, that’s what has been happening,” he added.

Sanders wrote on Twitter/X that his resolution directed the state department “to report on any human rights violations that may have occurred using US equipment in the Israeli military campaign in Gaza”, adding: “It should not be controversial to ask how US weapons are used.”

The measure that Sanders proposed uses a mechanism in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which allows Congress to provide oversight of US military assistance, which must be used in accordance with international human rights agreements.

If the measure could pass, the state department would have to provide a report within 30 days – and aid to Israel would be cut off if human rights violations were found.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress oppose any conditions on aid to Israel, and Joe Biden has staunchly stood by Israel throughout its campaign in Gaza, leaving Sanders with an uphill battle. But by forcing senators to vote on the record about whether they were willing to condition aid to Israel, Sanders and others lawmakers sparked debate on the matter.

Some lawmakers have increasingly pushed to place conditions on aid to Israel, which has drawn international criticism for its offensive in Gaza.

Sanders himself has faced criticism for declining to endorse calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, as some of his progressive colleagues have done.

Amid anti-war protests across the US, progressive representatives including Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Barbara Lee and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have called for a ceasefire. In a letter to the US president, many of these lawmakers stressed that thousands of children had been killed in the Israeli bombings.

Speaking from the Republican side before the measure was introduced on Tuesday evening, South Carolina senator Lindsay Graham said that Hamas, the Islamist group, has “militarized” schools and hospitals in the territory by operating amongst them.

Israel has blamed Hamas for using hospitals as cover for military purposes, but has not provided definitive proof backing its claims that Hamas kept a “command center” under Gaza’s main al-Shifa hospital, which the Israeli Defense Forces raided in November.

Two thirds of Gaza’s hospitals have been closed amidst what Biden has characterized as “indiscriminate bombings”, during a time of acute need, where United Nations agencies are warning of famine and disease as Gaza is besieged by Israel.

The Associated Press contributed reporting