Bernie Sanders attempts to block $20bn in US arms sales to Israel

Legislation is a long-shot in a majority pro-Israel Congress

Senator Bernie Sanders appears during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Bloomberg

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US Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday introduced a long-shot bill in the Senate that could force Washington to vote on blocking billions of dollars in arms sales to Israel, in the latest signal of growing congressional opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war in Gaza.

Mr Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, announced that he was filing a Joint Resolution of Disapproval that would block the sale of offensive weaponry to Israel, arguing that continuing to provide arms to the country “would violate US and international law”.

“Sadly, and illegally, much of the carnage in Gaza has been carried out with US-provided military equipment,” the Independent senator from Vermont said.

“Not another nickel for Netanyahu’s illegal war.”

The resolution centres its claims on a stipulation in the US Foreign Assistance Act that bans Washington from conducting arms transfers to countries that engage in human rights breaches, including a block on arms “to any country when it is made known to the President that the government of such country prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance”.

AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, slammed Mr Sanders over the resolution, claiming he “wants to undermine Israel's ability to defend itself with a dangerous resolution that emboldens Iran and its proxies to continue attacking Israel”.

The bill is unlikely to halt the flow of funds to Israel as it would require a majority vote in the largely pro-Israel Senate.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that federal watchdogs were preparing to publish the results of several investigations into the Biden administration's aid deliveries to Israel during the Gaza war, following internal complaints that “the export of billions of dollars in arms to Israel has violated laws prohibiting the transfer of American military assistance to governments that have committed gross human rights violations or blocked the movement of humanitarian assistance”.

The deaths of more than 41,200 Palestinians and blocks on land crossings for humanitarian aid by Israel has prompted a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

In June, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, issued a report that said Israeli authorities and security forces had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, and that they had violated international humanitarian and human rights law amid the military campaign in Gaza. The report also concluded that Hamas and other Palestinian militants committed war crimes and violated international humanitarian and human rights law during the attacks on southern Israel on October 7.

Israel has historically been the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign aid since its founding, receiving about $310 billion – adjusted for inflation – in total economic and military assistance, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

But since October 7, Washington has kicked that assistance into high gear, with Congress approving billions more dollars for Israel and the Biden administration increasing military sales to the US ally.

In January, the Senate rejected a resolution introduced by Mr Sanders that would have required the Biden administration to submit a report on the possibility of Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza.