Bernie Sanders Wants To Block Weapons Sales To Israel

The Vermont Senator filed resolutions that would block $8.5 billion worth of offensive weapons from being used in the genocide of Palestinians.

By Sharon Zhang, Truthout

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has moved to block President Donald Trump’s proposed $8.5 billion weapons transfer to Israel as Israeli forces have repeatedly violated the cease-fire agreement in Gaza and Trump is pushing a plan for the permanent forced expulsion of all Palestinians in the Strip.

Last week, Sanders introduced four Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRDs) aimed at blocking the sales. The transfer includes 2,166 small-diameter bombs, 2,800 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire missiles, and tens of thousands of JDAMs and artillery shells.

These weapons have been used extensively in Israeli attacks on Gaza that experts have said are likely war crimes due to their impact on civilians, with many saying that the very use of many of these weapons on a region as densely populated as Gaza would constitute an indiscriminate attack on civilians.

In a press release, Sanders’s office said that these weapons are “directly implicated in tens of thousands of civilian deaths” and that moving forward with the sale would “clearly violate” the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has used our bombs to damage or destroy almost 70 percent of the structures in Gaza, including hundreds of schools. All of this has been done in clear violation of U.S. and international law,” Sanders said in a statement.