“I Will Introduce a Resolution to Block
This $20 Billion Arms Sale to Israel”
Hon. Bernie Sanders / US Senate 

WASHINGTON (September 19, 2024) — Much of the carnage in Gaza has been carried out with US-provided military equipment. That’s why I will introduce a resolution to block this $20 billion arms sale to Israel. We must end our complicity in the immoral and illegal war against Palestinians.

Bernie Sanders Preparing Resolutions to
Block $20 Billion in US Arms Sales to Israel
Lisa Mascaro / The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (September 18, 2024) — Sen. Bernie Sanders is preparing several resolutions that would stop more than $20 billion in US arms sales to Israel, a longshot effort but the most substantive pushback yet from Congress over the devastation in Gaza ahead of the first year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war.

In a letter to Senate colleagues on Wednesday, Sanders said the US cannot be “complicit in this humanitarian disaster.” The action would force an eventual vote to block the arms sales to Israel, though majority passage is highly unlikely.

“Much of this carnage in Gaza has been carried out with US-provided military equipment,” Sanders, I-Vt., wrote.

As the war grinds toward a second year, and with the outcome of President Joe Biden’s efforts to broker a cease-fire deal and hostage release uncertain, the resolutions from Sanders would seek to reign in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assault on Gaza. The war has killed some 41,000 people in Gaza after the surprise Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that killed about 1,200 people in Israel, and abducted 250 others, with militants still holding around 100 hostages.

While it’s doubtful the politically split Senate would pass the measures, the move is designed to send a message to the Netanyahu regime that its war effort is eroding the US’s longtime bipartisan support for Israel. Sanders said he is working with other colleagues on the measures.