Bernie Sanders Speaks on the Israel-Hamas Conflict Transcript

Madam President, I listened carefully to what Senator Scott and others have said about the barbarous act committed by Hamas against innocent men, women and children, the mowing down by machine guns of young people who were doing nothing more than attending a dance, the murder of babies. This is an horrific, horrific act precipitating a worldwide crisis and the United States of America, all of us condemn this act. And in my view, the state of Israel has the absolute right to defend itself against Hamas and terrorism in general. No debate on that.

(01:00)
But what I ask my colleagues to also consider is that while we fully appreciate the horrific attack by Hamas against innocent people of Israel, I ask you also to understand that right now there are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children in Gaza who have lost their homes. They’ve been thrown out of their homes. They have no food, they have no water, they have no fuel. And I remind my colleagues that half of those people are children. Half of the people in Gaza are children. So yes, we are united in doing everything we can to destroy Hamas and their terrorism. But I implore you, do not take Hamas’ inhumanity and brutality and terrorism against children who are three or five years old. I ask you to think for a moment. Think about it. I have a state, represent the state of Vermont, 630,000 people. A million people, most of them are poor. They got nothing to begin with. Before this whole business, Gaza was one of the most desperately poor places in the world. Youth unemployment, 75%, many of their people depended on the UN for basic survival.

(02:41)
So what I’m asking people to take a look at is to understand what our country is about and what our country must not be involved in is making the horrific and miserable situation in Gaza even worse.

(03:06)
Many of the families, and again these are people thrown out of their homes, they don’t know where they’re going, they don’t know who will accept them, they don’t know if they’re ever going back to their homes and they’re poor to begin with. And do we really want to deny those people aid from the UN and other agencies to feed the children to provide water for them? Is that really what we are about? So of course it goes without saying that we’ve got to do everything that we can to make sure they’re not one nickel goes to the murderous Hamas organization. But at the same time, we have got to stand with the innocent women and children in Palestine who are suffering today and are facing an almost unprecedented modern humanitarian disaster.

(04:03)
So Madam President, today, in the midst of this crisis, US and UN assistance in Gaza is aimed squarely at addressing the basic needs of the Palestinian people, including humanitarian aid and water and health programs. The US and the UN go to great lengths to ensure that aid gets to the people who need it and is not diverted as through trusted partners like Catholic Relief Services. The Israeli government itself recognizes the importance of this humanitarian aid and has long supported it.

(04:48)
Today in the midst of this horrific crisis, the United States and the international community are working to secure humanitarian access and what media reports I have seen recently, we may be making some progress in that, so that the UN can get food and water and fuel and medicine to the million or more people in Gaza who need essential supplies. That should be our focus. There are people now facing hunger. They are facing incredible desperation and we cannot, cannot turn our backs on them. If you think this is going to be good for Israel, if you think that the suffering of the Palestinian people long-term is good for Israel, I think you are solely mistaken. The world is looking at us and the world understands that what Hamas did was terrible, but they don’t want to see our great country turn its back on innocent women and children.

(05:51)
That in my view, is not what this country is about. This is a tough issue. There’ve been four wars there in the last 15 years and ain’t going to be solved tomorrow. But while we do our best to support Israel and destroy Hamas, please let us not turn our back on the suffering people in Gaza. This is not what we should be doing, not what Congress should be doing, and therefore I object.