Senate kills resolution for basic oversight of U.S. military funding to Israel
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WASHINGTON, DC, JANUARY 17, 2024—In a move that will go down in history as enabling genocide, the Senate tabled a vote on the most basic oversight tool to review Israel’s human rights violations committed with billions of dollars in U.S. military funding.
On Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders brought to the floor S.Res.504, a resolution that would require the Biden administration to review Israel’s human rights violations within 30 days—or else suspend weapons to Israel. It was the first significant legislation on Palestine up for a vote in 102 days of genocide, and shamefully, the Senate voted 72-11 to kill the resolution on the spot.
S.Res.504 simply seeks to uphold U.S. law for military funding under Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act. It would force the State Department to report on how Israel is using the weapons funded by the U.S.—an accountability mechanism the Biden administration has actively avoided until now.
The vote follows President Biden’s statement marking 100 days since Oct. 7, 2023 focused solely on “100 days of captivity” for 100 Israeli hostages in Gaza, ignoring the 100,000 Palestinian people in Gaza who Israel has killed or wounded since then (including those reported missing). The statement did not even acknowledge Palestinian life in an alarming and dehumanizing disparity.
“President Biden’s refusal to recognize this genocide is a primary example of the anti-Palestinian racism that is deeply ingrained in the U.S. government, from the White House to Congress,” said Mohammed Khader, USCPR Manager of Policy & Advocacy Campaigns. “The Senate’s complete disregard for Palestinian lives has prevented support for basic oversight, as Israel bombs a hospital in southern Gaza and commits another massacre.”
“Every senator who has voted to let Israel off the hook, refusing to conduct the most basic oversight for U.S. weapons, is deeply complicit in Israel’s mass killings of Palestinians in Gaza,” said Ahmad Abuznaid, USCPR Executive Director. “History will remember how you fueled bloodshed during a genocide.”
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About the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) is a national network of activists and organizations who are committed to freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and who work to end U.S. complicity in their oppression. USCPR is a political home for all who believe that freedom for the Palestinian people is an integral part of achieving our collective liberation. USCPR provides resources and strategic support to the U.S.-based Palestine solidarity movement, channeling grassroots power into positive change in U.S. policy and public opinion. USCPR works with local organizers and activists, policymakers, movement leaders, media, and advocacy organizations to advance a rights-based, accountability and justice-oriented framework from the U.S. to Palestine.
