Eight senators sent a letter to President Joe Biden demanding the United States stop sending military aid to Israel until it lifts restrictions they claim the country is imposing on aid going into Gaza, according to the New York Times.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was joined by seven Democratic senators who wrote to Biden, arguing that the president is in violation of the Foreign Assistance Act, which bars the U.S. from sending military support to nations that restrict aid.
“We urge you to make it clear to the [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu government that failure to immediately and dramatically expand humanitarian access and facilitate safe aid deliveries throughout Gaza will lead to serious consequences, as specified under existing U.S. law,” the senators wrote.
Israel insists it is not holding up aid flowing into Gaza. Officials have instead blamed the United Nations for not delivering aid packages and, in some instances, funneling resources to Hamas.
Sanders said Netanyahu’s war tactics are in violation of the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act, a part of the Foreign Assistance Act, which requires the U.S. to restrict aid to a country as soon as the president is aware that it is blocking humanitarian aid.
“That’s exactly what Israel is doing; they are preventing U.S. humanitarian assistance from getting to the people of Gaza,” Sanders said. “They are in violation of the law, and therefore financial aid should be suspended.”
The letter is the latest push by Democrats to Biden’s left to pressure him to call on Netanyahu to change his tactics in Gaza. The letter, co-written by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), is signed by some of the party’s most left-leaning members, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Peter Welch (D-VT), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM).
“I hope the president understands that a growing number of members of Congress, and the American people in general, are sick and tired of seeing the destruction of the people of Gaza and the creation of mass starvation,” Sanders wrote.
Last month, the Senate approved an emergency national security aid bill, including $14.1 billion in military aid for Israel, $10 billion of which was for weapons for its war against Hamas. Despite the criticism, the senators drew a distinction between defensive and offensive aid.
“Israel has the right to defend itself,” the letter reads, “but Israel does not have — in any way, shape or form — the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people.”
These measures have had little success in Congress without much leverage to change Israel’s war tactics as proponents of such measures do not have enough votes in the House or Senate. The U.S. has been involved in multiple air drops into the Gaza Strip and is planning to build a pier for a new entry point of aid. These new measures are an acknowledgment from the White House that Israel stands in the way of aid reaching Gaza, according to the letter.
“People are now dying of starvation, and we need to use all the leverage we’ve got,” Van Hollen said. “The administration has not used the leverage it has today. I don’t know how many more kids have to starve before we use all the levers of our influence here, but they really need to do more.”
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The Coalition of Government Activities in the Territories, which is the Israeli agency responsible for implementing policy in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, insists there is more than enough aid on its borders to distribute.
“You distributed less than 80% of the aid that entered Gaza,” the agency posted on X in response to Phillippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, last month. “There is still a huge amount waiting on the Gazan side of Keren Shalom. If @UNRWA wasn’t such a failure logistically (perhaps investing its resources in other areas instead), more aid would reach the people of Gaza.”