Bernie Sanders says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

Bernie Sanders has said on Wednesday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and called for the US government to stop funding and arming the Israeli government.

He has become the first US senator to describe Israel’s assault on Gaza as a genocide, writing in a statement that “The conclusion is inescapable.”

The news comes a day after the Palestinian health ministry announced that the number of people killed by Israel’s offensive in Gaza had surpassed 65,000, the vast majority of whom have been civilians.

On Monday, a United Nations commission also said that Israel has committed and continues to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, marking the first time that an allegation of genocide has been made by a UN body.

“I agree,” Sanders wrote in a statement posted to his Senate webpage. “It Is Genocide. The intent is clear.”

Sanders had previously been criticised for shying away from the term genocide, which he had previously said made his “queasy” when it was chanted by the public during a speech in Ireland last year.

In this new statement, he wrote that while Israel had a right to defend itself from Hamas, who “began this war with its brutal attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages”, “Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas.

“Instead,” he continued, “it has waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people.”

He went on to cite Israel’s defense minister as saying, “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” as well as saying that the finance minister vowed that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed.”

“We, as Americans, must end our complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people,” he added. “Having named it a genocide, we must use every ounce of our leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid facilitated by the UN, and initial steps to provide Palestinians with a state of their own.”

Sanders is part of a group of Democratic senators who have been attempting to block shipments of US weaponry to Israel. He said the US must stop “sending many billions of dollars and weapons to Netanyahu’s genocidal government”.

He has joined a small list of House members, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as Vermont representative Becca Balint, who also called it a genocide earlier yesterday.

The Trump administration has backed Israeli actions since coming into office. In March, the White House said Trump “fully supports” Israel’s operations in Gaza.

Since the start of the war, Israel has faced accusations of genocide from many NGOs and independent UN experts, as well as in a case brought against it by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity.

You can read Bernie Sanders’ full statement here.