In response to the introduction by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) of Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to block new sales of more than $20 billion dollars in offensive US weapons to Israel, Center for International Policy Vice President for Government Affairs Dylan Williams issued the following statement:
“The resolutions introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders and his colleagues are an appropriate, measured, and sadly necessary response to a security partner’s repeated violations of US and international law. These Senators should be applauded for taking concrete action to enforce the requirement that other countries only use American weapons for legitimate defense purposes and in accordance with the law of war.
“Israel has the same right as any other country to defend its people from attacks and war crimes like those perpetrated in the Hamas-led assault on October 7th. It also has the same obligation as every other country and combatant to abide by international humanitarian law – and as a US security assistance recipient, relevant American law – in doing so.
“The evidence is overwhelming that Israel has failed to abide by standards set in US and international law in its Gaza campaign. The obscene civilian casualty figures, the targeting of schools, shelters and hospitals known to house large numbers of the displaced and wounded, and the restriction of the delivery of critical food and medicine speak to a pattern of flagrant disregard for its obligations under the law.
“Tragically, the Biden Administration has failed to enforce the law with regard to Israel, enabling the Netanyahu government to deepen and expand a campaign in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, subjected hundreds of thousands more to malnutrition and disease, and left the territory in ruin. Even as Netanyahu’s own negotiators revealed that the Israeli Prime Minister was obstructing a ceasefire and hostage release agreement, President Biden continued to supply weapons to Israel in violation of US law and his own administration’s policies. Now, as hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah escalate and large numbers of Lebanese civilians are being subjected to the horrors already visited on the people of Gaza, the administration is preparing to send more than $20 billion in new weapons to the Netanyahu government.
“We welcome Senator Sanders’ initiative to put a stop to this carnage and US complicity in it. As these resolutions will not be voted on for several weeks due to the pre-election recess, we again call on the Biden administration to do what it should have done months ago, and immediately suspend offensive arms transfers to Israel.”
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The Center for International Policy (CIP) welcomes introduction of the UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act (H.R.9649) by Representatives André Carson (IN-7), Pramila Jayapal (WA-7), Jan Schakowsky (IL-9) and more than 60 of their colleagues. The bill seeks to restore statutorily suspended funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the main provider of humanitarian relief in war-torn Gaza.
In response, CIP Vice President for Government Affairs Dylan Williams issued the following statement:
“It’s great to see such strong support among lawmakers for joining our allies around the world in resuming contributions to this critical agency. Halting funding to UNRWA for a full year was one of the most grievous US foreign policy mistakes since the start of the Gaza war.
“The Israeli rightwing and other anti-Palestinian forces have long sought to defund UNRWA, mistakenly believing that hobbling the agency would delegitimize Palestinians’ refugee status and national rights. Caving to this malicious campaign while starvation and disease threaten hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians in Gaza is morally unconscionable and undermines the United States’s stated objective of ending the humanitarian crisis in the territory.
“The US suspended its contributions to the agency following accusations by Israel that a small number of low-level UNRWA staff in Gaza had participated in the horrific Hamas-led October 7 attacks. UNRWA immediately fired the individuals and fully cooperated with official inquiries into the accusations. Nearly all funding from other countries that suspended their UNRWA contributions in the wake of this incident has since been resumed — but restoring US contributions remains critical to UNRWA’s operations.
“UNRWA is rigorously regulated and audited, and the sole organization with the ability to provide essential assistance to the majority of Gaza’s population in the foreseeable future – if Israel allows adequate aid to enter and be distributed in the territory. The Biden Administration should work with these lawmakers to ensure US funding to UNRWA is restored as soon as possible, and take the steps necessary to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza that would also allow for the desperately needed surge of humanitarian relief to begin.”
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In response to an Israeli airstrike on a tent camp in Rafah that caused the deaths of at least 45 civilians, part of an ongoing offensive in southern Gaza, Center for International Policy’s Vice President for Government Affairs Dylan Williams issued the following statement:
“The mass killing of civilians seeking refuge, whether by mistake or otherwise, is exactly what President Biden said would be unacceptable about an Israeli offensive in Rafah. Biden shouldn’t wait for a pro forma Israeli investigation — he should stand by his word and halt arms right now.”
CIP has been warning for weeks that the Israeli offensive in Rafah is a violation of President Biden’s “red line.”
