Sanders Introduces Resolution to
Investigate Israel’s Indiscriminate
Bombing Campaign in Gaza
Bernie Sanders / US Senate

WASHINGTON (December 15, 2023) — With nearly 19,000 people killed and more than 50,000 wounded in Gaza since October 7 — seventy percent of whom are women and children — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Thursday introduced a resolution under Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act to force a debate on the indiscriminate bombing being carried out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government.

The Foreign Assistance Act prohibits security assistance to any government “which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” Section 502B(c) of this law allows Congress to request information on a country’s human rights practices — such requests are privileged, allowing the sponsor to force a floor vote on the requesting resolution.

If the resolution passes, the Department of State must submit the requested report within 30 days, or all security assistance to the country in question is cut off. After the report is received, Congress may then enact changes to condition, reduce, or terminate the security assistance in question. Both the initial vote to request the information and any subsequent votes to alter security assistance are privileged and require a simple majority for passage.

“We all know Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack began this war,” said Sanders. “But the Netanyahu government’s indiscriminate bombing is immoral, it is in violation of international law, and the Congress must demand answers about the conduct of this campaign. A just cause for war does not excuse atrocities in the conduct of that war.”

The resolution acknowledges Israel’s right to respond to the horrific Hamas terrorist attack and details how Israel’s indiscriminate response, including the use of massive explosive ordinance in densely populated urban areas, has devastated Gaza and caused tremendous loss of civilian life. Nearly 19,000 people have been killed, including 135 UN aid workers, and 1.9 million people have been displaced, more than 85 percent of the population.

Some 60 percent of Gaza’s housing stock has been destroyed, comparable to Dresden after two years of bombing during World War II, and more than 100 UN facilities have been hit. Israel has relied on U.S.-provided arms in this campaign, including widespread use of explosive ordinance like 2,000-pound bombs and 155mm artillery in well-documented strikes that led to large numbers of civilian deaths.

Sanders said: “The scale of the suffering in Gaza is unimaginable — it will be remembered among some of the darkest chapters of our modern history. This is a humanitarian cataclysm, and it is being done with American bombs and money. We need to face up to that fact — and then we need to end our complicity in those actions.”

Based on this reality, the resolution requests the State Department report on any violations of internationally recognized human rights caused by indiscriminate or disproportionate military operations in Gaza, as well as the blanket denial of basic humanitarian needs.

It also requests information on actions the U.S. has taken to limit civilian risk caused by Israeli military action, a certification that Israeli security forces have not committed any human rights violations, a summary of arms provided to Israel since October 7, and an assessment of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law in Gaza.
Read the bill text, here and below.
Read the one-pager, here and below.

Background on Section 502B(c)
of the Foreign Assistance Act

Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act allows Congress to request information on a particular country’s human rights practices and to alter or terminate U.S. security assistance to that country in light of the information received.

Step 1: Upon introduction of a resolution under Section 502B(c), the Foreign Relations Committee has ten days to consider the resolution in Committee. After ten days, the sponsors can force a floor vote on the motion to discharge the resolution from committee. The resolution is privileged, and there is a simple majority threshold for the motion to discharge and final passage.

Step 2: If the resolution passes, the administration must submit the requested report within 30 days, or all security assistance to the country in question automatically stops.

Step 3: After the report is received, Section 502B(c) stipulates that Congress may at any time thereafter adopt a joint resolution conditioning, restricting, terminating, or continuing security assistance to the country in question. These resolutions are again privileged and require a simple majority for passage, but must clear both Houses of Congress and be signed by the President.

Note: Congress has not requested a report under 502B(c) since 1976.

Sanders 502(B) Resolution on Israel
This resolution:

• Acknowledges the Hamas terrorist attack, the loss of innocent life, and Israel’s right to respond;
• Lays out the loss of life and destruction in Gaza thus far, including nearly 19,000 killed and more than 50,000 wounded; 1.9 million displaced, 60% of the housing stock destroyed, 135 UN workers killed, more than 100 UN facilities damaged in strikes;
• Places this destruction in historical context and notes the dense urban environment;
• Details the extensive use of U.S. arms, particularly massive explosive ordinance, such as

Mark 84 2,000-pound bombs and 155mm artillery;

• Notes the credible findings from human rights monitors and the press that U.S. arms were

used in several specific strikes leading to large numbers of civilian casualties;

• Per Section 502B(c), requests the State Department report on, among other things:
• credible allegations of the violation of internationally recognized human rights in Gaza, particularly the denial of the right to life caused by indiscriminate or disproportionate military operations;
• the denial of the right to life by the blanket denial of basic humanitarian needs;
• actions the U.S. has taken to limit civilian risk caused by Israeli military action;
• certification that no unit of the Israeli security forces has committed any gross

violations of human rights;
• summary of arms and munitions provided to Israel since October 7;
• assessment of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law in Gaza; • description of the end-use monitoring of arms sold/transferred for use in Gaza.

Senate Resolution
United States Senate

Requesting information on Israel’s human rights practices pursuant to section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

Whereas there have been 5 rounds of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the last 15 years;

Whereas the current round of conflict began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas, a terrorist organization, unleashed a brutal attack against Israel, killing some 1,200 innocent men, women, and children, and taking more than 200 hostages;

Whereas United States citizens were among those killed and abducted by Hamas;

Whereas the Senate has unanimously reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas terrorism and re spond against the perpetrators of the October 7, 2023, attack;

Whereas Israel has conducted retaliatory military operations against targets in Gaza since October 7, 2023, relying heavily on the use of airstrikes and artillery bombardment;

Whereas, as of December 14, 2023, nearly 19,000 people have been killed and more than 50,000 wounded in the Israeli counteroffensive in Gaza since October 7, 2023;

Whereas 70 percent of those killed in Gaza are reported to be women and children;

Whereas the United Nations, World Health Organization, human rights monitors, outside academic studies, the Government of Israel, and United States officials find these figures to be broadly reliable;

Whereas the United Nations, United States officials, and outside experts believe the current death toll is likely higher, with thousands of bodies trapped beneath the rubble in Gaza;

Whereas 135 United Nations aid workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023;

Whereas nearly 1,900,000 people, more than 85 percent of the population, have been displaced across the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023;

Whereas, on November 24, 2023, the United Nations reported that ‘‘across the Gaza Strip, over 234,000 housing units have been damaged and more than 46,000 homes have been completely destroyed, amounting to over 60 [percent] of the total housing stock’’;

Whereas 43 United Nations facilities have sustained direct hits, 60 United Nations installations have sustained collateral damage, and 11 bakeries have been destroyed in the bombardment;

Whereas academic analysis of satellite radar data confirms the United Nations assessment that some 60 percent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been severely damaged and, across the Gaza Strip, ‘‘between 82,600 and 105,300 buildings have been left in ruins, according to the estimate, which counts buildings where at least half the structure was damaged’’;

Whereas Robert Pape, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, said that ‘‘over the space of two years, between 1943 and 1945, the Allied bombing of 61 major German cities razed an estimated 50 percent of their urban areas,’’ and that the Allied bombing of Dresden severely damaged 56 percent of that city’s non-industrial buildings and half of its homes, a threshold the bombing in Gaza has matched in 2 months;

Whereas the Israeli military has made extensive use of Mark 84 2,000-pound bombs, Mark 83 1,000-pound bombs, Mark 82 500-pound bombs, and 155mm artillery in densely populated urban areas with a large civilian presence;

Whereas these munitions are manufactured in the United States and supplied to Israel by the United States;

Whereas the Washington Post reports that, in the first 6 weeks after October 7, 2023, the Government of Israel dropped more than 22,000 guided and unguided bombs on Gaza that were supplied by the United States;

Whereas CNN reports, based on United States intelligence assessments, that 40 to 45 percent of the 29,000 air-to-ground munitions that Israel has used in Gaza since October 7, 2023 have been unguided ‘‘dumb bombs’’;

Whereas the Wall Street Journal reports that the United States has provided at least 15,000 bombs and 57,000 155mm artillery shells to Israel since October 7, 2023, including more than 5,000 Mark 82 unguided 500-pound bombs, more than 5,400 Mark 84 2,000-pound bombs, and thousands of smaller munitions and targeting kits;

Whereas these munitions were delivered with the knowledge that they would likely be used in Gaza, a densely populated urban area with a large civilian presence;

Whereas the entire Gaza Strip is the physical size of Las Vegas but has more than 3 times the population, and Gaza City is more densely populated than New York City;

Whereas, on December 1, 2023, United States officials told the Wall Street Journal that ‘‘Israel used an American-provided bomb with a large payload in one of the deadliest strikes of the entire war, an attack that leveled an apartment block in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, killing more than 100 people’’ in its effort to eliminate a Hamas leader, also reported killed in the strike; and

Whereas Amnesty International has found, based on photographic and satellite evidence, as well as on-the-ground investigation and analysis of bomb fragments, that United States-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) were used in 2 deadly Israeli airstrikes on homes in Gaza in which 43 civilians were killed:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved,

SECTION 1. REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON
ISRAEL’S HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES.

(a) STATEMENT REQUESTED.— The Senate requests that the Secretary of State, not later than 30 days after the date of the adoption of this resolution, transmit to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, pursuant to section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2304(c)), a statement regarding Israel’s human rights practices that has been prepared in collaboration with the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and the Office of the Legal Adviser.

(b) ELEMENTS.—The statement submitted under subsection (a) should include—

(1) all available credible information concerning alleged violations of internationally recognized human rights by the Government of Israel, including —

(A) the denial of the right to life in the context of the armed conflict in Gaza and the West Bank caused by indiscriminate or disproportionate operations; and (B) the denial of the right to life and the security of the person by the blanket denial of basic humanitarian needs, including food, water, medical care, fuel, and shelter;
(2) a description of the steps that the United

States Government has taken to —
(A) promote respect for and observance of human rights as part of the Government of Israel’s activities, including in the context of the armed conflict in Gaza and the West Bank;

(B) limit the risk to civilian life and civilian infrastructure caused by Israeli military action in Gaza and the West Bank;

(C) discourage any practices that are inimical to internationally recognized human rights; and

(D) publicly or privately call attention to, and disassociate the United States and any security assistance provided for the Government of Israel from any practices described in subparagraph (C);

(3) an assessment, notwithstanding any practices described in paragraph (2)(B), of whether extraordinary circumstances exist that necessitate a continuation of security assistance for the Government of Israel, and if so, a description of the circumstances and the extent to which security assistance should be continued (subject to such conditions as Congress may impose under section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2304));

(4) a certification that no unit of the Israeli security forces receiving United States assistance since  January 1, 2018, has—

(A) committed any gross violations of human rights; or continued to receive United States assistance in violation of section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2378d) or section 362 of title 10, United States Code;

(5) a description of the manner and extent to which the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense has determined, for purposes of compliance with the vetting requirements of section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2378d)  and section 362 of title 10, United States Code, that any information relating to the commission of  human rights violations by units of Israeli security  forces is credible; and (6) other information, including—

(A) a summary and list of United States weapons and munitions provided to Israel since October 7, 2023;

(B) an assessment from the Secretary of State of the likelihood that United States security assistance (as defined in section 502B(d) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2304(d))) will be used in support of Israeli activities related to the armed conflict in Gaza and the West Bank.

GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘gross violations of human rights’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘gross violations of internationally recognized human rights’’ in section 502B(d)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961